Background / Organisation

In The Netherlands music education cannot be seen as an isolated domain or subject – music education should be seen in a general context of education in art and culture. Culture and school has the aim to make pupils familiar with art and cultural heritage. By offering more education with and about culture, pupils learn to know the value of art and culture. This will widen insight and activates creative talents. The national government is concentrating on structural provisions for schools, teachers and pupils, knowledge development and communication about cultural education.

Training for music teachers is provided by ten conservatoires and one university:

Conservatoires offer two kinds of programmes: Bachelor/Master of Music (Musician) and Bachelor/Master of Music in Education (Music Teacher). Music teachers for primary and secondary schools are educated in the programme Bachelor of Music in Education. Instrumental teachers are mostly trained in the programme Bachelor of Music. The Master studies at conservatoires are quite new. Most Master studies focus on Art Education in general. There is one institute (The Hague) which has a Master in music pedagogy.

Music teacher training in universities: A music teacher trained at a university has studied musicology (Master) plus an additional programme – a one year curriculum which leads to a certificate of a two year Master programme.

Music teacher training for primary and secondary education: Specialist music teachers are rare in primary education. General teachers are trained in teacher training colleges (PABO) and receive minimal music instruction as part of their training. Sometimes specific music programmes are added to the general curriculum by bringing in professional musicians or through cooperation with the local music school. In secondary education, music is taught by a specialist teacher. Most music teachers are trained in a conservatoire (Music teacher programme).

Most of the teacher training programmes in The Netherlands at Bachelor level, certificate for the lower levels (e.g. secondary schools up until the age of 14). Teacher training in Music, Gymnastics and Fine Arts is an exception. Music teacher training certificates for all levels of education. This means that there is an ungraded system. In practice this means a certified music teacher can teach at all levels - from primary to secondary and even in higher education. In principle, there is no specific orientation towards primary or secondary, although secondary education has the most focus in Music teacher training. There are just a few students who follow a Master’s programme.

Recently the name for Music teacher training programmes was changed from “school music” to Music Teacher (“Opleiding Docent Muziek”). The new term fits better with the description of the programme and the competencies of the students. The field of music and art education is rapidly changing and music teachers also have ambitions to work in community settings and as educational workers for professional organisations, such as orchestras and concert venues.