Organisation

There is a firmly established culture of musical education in Germany. Institutions are either financed by the municipalities or organised privately. They offer a wide range of courses for those interested. Music schools form part of the permanent cultural provisions in almost all towns and cities in the field of leisure activities. Children, youths and adults can, for example, learn not only to play a musical instrument but also learn to sing. 

The "An Instrument for Every Child" Foundation based in Bochum is implementing "An Instrument for Every Child" together with music schools in the Ruhr district. What previously fell within the realm of leisure activities is now a permanent feature in the lesson plan for primary school children. Teaching is supplied by qualified music college teachers having completed training at a music college or university. They teach the children directly at the primary schools. The music schools become a permanent partner in education for the primary schools and are expected to reach up to ten times more children and youths who wish to continue their musical education after the end of their fourth school year.

The foundation “An Instrument for every Child” assists music schools with questions concerning the programme and is responsible for supra-regional tasks (such as project development, communication, awarding grants, offering continuing education courses for music school teachers and providing research assistance). The office guarantees the transfer of knowledge from Bochum to all the music schools in the region, helps them procure the instruments, and supports them with the challenges that go far beyond the actual music classes. The project office is also available to answer questions and provide information to people from other states in Germany or abroad.
Currently, 55 music schools in the Ruhr region are implementing the programme; they have informed the project office that a total of 541 primary schools have registered to take part in the programme in the 2009/2010 academic year. 

Quality assurance
To ensure a high degree of quality and attain the projected goals, the programme is applying a variety of quality assurance measures.

These include:
• Clearly defined programme standards 
• Payment of the teaching staff
• Intensive continuing education courses for music and primary school teachers
• Scientific research support
• Financial and statistic controlling for the entire project 

Programme standards
The standards apply to all participating municipalities and are an integral part of the application. The municipalities are responsible for meeting these standards. 
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Payment of the teaching staff
Agreed minimum payment applies with "An Instrument for Every Child" that music schools participating in the programme must grant the teaching staff. Adherence to the Public Sector Wage Agreement (Tarif des Öffentlichen Dienstes, TVÖD 9) is required to employ music school personnel for the "An Instrument for Every Child" programme. 

Further education
From Autumn 2007 until 2011, a large number of teachers at primary schools and music schools in the Ruhr region will have the opportunity to attend continuing education courses which will help prepare them for the special teaching requirements needed for the programme “An Instrument for Every Child”.
The newly created forms of teaching and the music education content require numerous additional qualifications. This includes, for example, the ability to teach in tandem with a primary school teacher, to teach in large groups, comprehensive knowledge of the instruments to be demonstrated and the ability to conduct teaching with internal differentiation in instrumental groups of three to seven children. 

Controlling
The expenditure of all project funding must comply with the budget code of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the VOL funding allocation ordinance. The project office is responsible for monitoring the proper use of the available funding. The funding must be used solely for expenses directly related to the programme “An Instrument for Every Child”. The project office will also collect pertinent statistics showing how many children are participating in the programme, which instruments they are learning, how long they have stayed in the programme and information related to their family background. The participating music schools are asked to provide these statistics for evaluation by the project office.