“When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun”: Goering, the James Bond franchise, and now the UK government.
The new EBacc has left art and music out of its core curriculum, providing such a disincentive for these subjects that 27 per cent of schools have withdrawn related subjects from the curriculum, according to Ipsos Mori research.
A number of high profile figures in the arts expressed their concern to the Guardian. If the trend continues “we risk ending up with a two-tier system where arts are regarded as second-class subjects”, Cultural Learning Alliance’s Lizzie Crump told the Guardian.
Too late Lizzie Crump! The arts have been second class subjects for some time. In 2011, the postgrad places for trainee teachers were reduced by 220 places for art and 180 places for music. 206 arts companies lost their core funding last year, according to the 2011 spending review, and one in ten shut down as a result. And last week 117 jobs were cut at the Arts Council England, which has reduced internal costs by half. (It plans to cut a fifth of its workforce by July).
The way the trend is going, even if we can save art qualifications there’ll be little use for them in a few years time. No wonder the Guardian’s commenters are arguing for the arts on the basis of their psychological benefits, rather than their career prospects.
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