Richard Tognetti, Peter Sculthorpe and Richard Gill head petition to ensure every child receives a musical education.

Music advocacy group The Music Trust has launched an online petition calling for every child to have the opportunity to be involved with a music class, taught at least weekly, and by a trained music teacher.

While the Australian Curriculum contains a commitment to teaching the arts and music, it is the view of The Music Trust that a majority of primary school students miss out on this education due to a combination of ineffective teacher training and classroom instruction. The organisation emphasises the importance of classroom music teaching, as opposed to after-school band programs or merely individual tuition.

In Australia, classroom music teaching should form part of the teaching curriculum, and as such ensure that all students receive the benefit of a musical education, regardless of their socio-economic background. The Music Trust points out that, in a recent survey 63% of the schools that responded to their survey offered no classroom music instruction.

The Music Trust similarly targets teacher training, claiming that only 23% of government schools feature a music program taught by a specialist music teacher, as opposed to the 88% of...