Proportion of students taking arts subjects falls to lowest in decade

3rd October 2017

New figures suggest that the number of 15-16 year olds studying arts subjects in England, such as drama and music, has fallen to the lowest level in a decade as a result of government policies.

The Education Policy Institute reports that reforms have driven students to take more traditional subjects such as geography and history over subjects including dance and fine art for GCSE.

According to the EPI’s estimates, around 19,000 fewer pupils took arts subjects at key stage four last year compared with in 2014.

Commenting on the report, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“The government must stop burying its head in the sand. The evidence is clear that arts subjects are being driven to the fringes of the curriculum by accountability measures which heavily prioritise a narrow range of academic subjects, and an education funding crisis which means schools are having to cut courses.

“We entirely agree with the EPI report’s conclusion that the government needs to acknowledge the pressure on arts subjects, and consider the impact which reduced access to the arts is likely to have, both on pupils and on the creative industries more widely.

The report, published on Thursday, blamed the Department for Education (DfE) over its new Progress 8 grading system as well as the promotion of narrow subject choices in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) for the decline.

Ministers have said the three open subjects in Progress 8 offer room for pupils to study arts, but teachers and school leaders argue the measure has been reinforced by the Ebacc, a school performance measure based solely on performance in English, maths, history or geography, sciences and languages.

Mr Barton continued: “Nobody is disputing that the curriculum should have a rigorous academic core, but it also needs to maintain a breadth which preserves student choice, and protects the huge importance of arts subjects in our cultural life. The government must review how its policies are squeezing the life out of the arts.”

Further results from the EPI study showed that pupils who were not entered for the EBacc were more likely to study at least one art subject. The report also concluded that high-performing schools that achieved good results in arts subjects were more likely to continue offering them to pupils.

Original article published on The Guardian.