Parents ask schools to restrict music lessons on religious grounds

Parents are asking schools to limit their children’s music listening and playing because of religious beliefs, Yle reports. But pupils are entitled to music education under the curriculum and are expected to attend lessons.

The Finnish National Agency for Education regularly receives questions from schools about requests to change music lessons. Yle also spoke to 12 music teachers about cases in which families’ beliefs affected what parents wanted their children to do in class. Some teachers did not give their names, saying it could cause problems at work.

According to information obtained by Yle, requests have come particularly from parents with Muslim backgrounds and from those with strong Christian convictions. The agency’s music education adviser, Alma Muukka-Marjovuo, said music education is considered to support cultural participation and a sense of community, making the issue broader than individual cases.

Teachers seek guidance on difficult cases

Music teacher Pauliina Raejärvi said that, while she was a primary school class teacher in the Helsinki metropolitan area, her employer instructed her to have three pupils leave the classroom whenever the class played instruments or listened to music. Their family’s religious beliefs did not allow them to hear the sounds of instruments.

The arrangement affected lesson planning. The pupils could sing without accompaniment and do body percussion, while they completed extra work outside the classroom when others played instruments. Raejärvi said some pupils showed interest in playing despite their parents’ prohibition, raising difficult questions for teachers.

Two teachers told Yle that pupils had completed instrumental parts of the primary school music curriculum by doing written assignments independently. Muukka-Marjovuo said written work cannot replace practical music-making altogether. “You do not learn home economics just by reading recipes,” she said. “It is the same with music. If you do not make music in some way, you cannot pass the subject.”

Muukka-Marjovuo said questions of belief should be discussed by the teacher, pupil and guardians, while the curriculum must still be followed. Asked what guidance teachers should use, she pointed them to the national curriculum.

Lauri Roto, a music teacher who has worked in Vantaa for more than a decade, said requests to alter lessons were uncommon in his experience. Some arose during Ramadan, though practices varied between families. He has offered alternative tasks, including having pupils prepare presentations in the corridor.

On one occasion, a pupil could not even prepare a presentation about music during Ramadan. Roto suggested a topic involving a prayer song, but the pupil was upset when he called it music. “I was told it was not music but prayer,” he said, adding that music can have different meanings in different cultures.

Yle’s calls to school principals in the Helsinki metropolitan area found that the issue had come up from time to time, but generally had not caused friction. Cases were most often resolved through respectful discussion.

Rules for music education

Finland’s Basic Education Act gives pupils the right to teaching based on the curriculum, including in music. The Finnish National Agency for Education sets the national curriculum framework, and education providers approve local curricula based on it.