News

The Arts and Minds Campaign has called on the government to scrap the EBacc so we’re delighted to see this recommendation included in the Review.  This change will give a much-needed boost to the status of the arts in schools and open the door to more children studying arts subjects – theoretically, young people could take up to three creative subjects at GCSE.

However, we hope the government recognises the need to restore arts funding in schools, beginning with investment in the workforce. To fully embed arts in the curriculum, schools and the teaching profession must also be supported with the necessary training and professional development. Only then will every child have the chance to study creative subjects and reach their full potential wherever their talents lie.

Alongside these changes, the government must now loosen the grip of school performance measures to ensure students’ access to a wider range of subjects including the arts. The proposed year 8 reading test will further narrow the curriculum and take time away from creative subjects for the sake of yet another government assessment. The exam factory culture needs to end now – it does not deliver the broad, rich education experience that our children want and deserve.

Arts and Minds Arts Ambassador, artist Bob and Roberta Smith OBE RA comments, “It’s welcome news that the EBacc is to be scrapped.  Since its adoption, the EBacc has pushed a broad arts education out of the reach of state educated children and shrunk the pool of working-class kids going forward to higher education. It has all but destroyed music and design education doing untold damage to cultural life for a generation. I hope government scraps Progress 8 and I hope it reinstates bursaries to aspiring arts and music teachers undertaking PGCE postgraduate degrees.”