School music tuition free for next year after government funding

Bairns will be able to learn an instrument for free at school for at least the next year after the Scottish government announced £7m in funding would go towards music lessons.

The news will be welcomed across Shetland, where tuition fees for music lessons have been widely unpopular.

Shetland Islands Council had been due to charge parents £210 for the upcoming school year for a pupil to get face-to-face music lessons – for every instrument they were learning.

That charge would have been £120 if lessons were taken remotely instead.

But the Scottish government said the funding would come in time for the upcoming school year.

Councils across Scotland will also received a further £6m to waive certain curriculum charges, such as materials for home economics which some families have to pay.