Ed Sheeran has opened up about a new high school scheme he is funding to improve music learning.
The chart-topping star credits his own music education in Suffolk as a key to his success and has been left outraged by budget cuts to creative learning in the UK.
Opening up to the This Past Weekend podcast with Theo Von, Ed explained how he helped fund music facilities in his old school and is now helping others across the country.
He said, “Basically in 2018, my old music teacher came to me and he was like, ‘look, the government that is currently in charge, do not value art at all.. arts, drama, music.’ And they cut all the funding for comprehensive high schools.
“So my music teacher came to me and was going, I think they had to share between art, music and drama, like £700 per year for all three subjects. So I started funding that at my local high school. And then you see a massive uptick in kids doing production, kids doing songwriting, kids doing this.”
He explained, “I built a recording studio there. There’s loads of proper instruments that aren’t broken and you just see the school getting better at music. So then I started doing that in the county that I’m from. And we’ve just now changed it to do it nationwide. And I’m now visiting more high schools and places that really need music funding.”
The Thinking Out Loud singer, who is worth a reported £300 million, added, “You see what a difference it makes too. Because I’m not an academic person and in the real world I would be viewed as stupid, but I excelled at music and therefore people think that I’m good at something.”
