Participation in arts subjects at GCSE has fallen by an alarming 42 per cent since 2010, according to the Cultural Learning Alliance, despite there being no shortage of students keen to take them.
School leaders point to a lack of funding and difficulty recruiting teachers. Given that the UK’s creative industries delivered almost £125bn to the economy in 2022 – more value than the life sciences, aerospace and automotive sectors combined – could the “creative gap” offer Rachel Reeves a way to boost growth?
A new campaign led by the National Education Union – Arts and Minds – is making the case for all children to have the right to study creative subjects. It is drawing attention to evidence of a dramatic decline in arts education, and why that is deeply damaging to both the bank balance and the wellbeing of the nation.
Cultural capital has been shown to have a direct positive link to GCSE attainment, and children from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree.
The lesson is: personal growth leads to economic growth.
Smashing the class ceiling
High-profile supporters of the campaign – dubbed Arts Ambassadors – include the actor Steve Coogan. “It’s not enough for kids to be talented – these days you need money,” he says. “Access to creative subjects should not be limited to those who go to private school, or whose parents can afford to pay for extra-curricular activities.”
It’s hard to disagree when you learn that half of all parents can’t afford such benefits. That’s millions of children missing out on the chance to foster their talents and explore future careers.
For Arlene Phillips, this is a very personal campaign: “As a young and not very academic pupil in a large grammar school of mostly academic students, I was an odd one out. I knew from a young age my life was going to be in dance.”
The supermodel, designer and broadcaster Eunice Olumide who
hosted the Arts and Minds launch event at Tate Modern in early February, also understands the profound impact that the arts can have on life chances. As a child living on a deprived council estate, she “learned to dream” at the National Museum of Scotland.
Other supporters in the screen industry, such as EastEnders’ Kellie Bright, House of the Dragon’s Jamie Kenna and Billy Elliot creator Lee Hall, are acutely aware of how few creatives working in TV and film are from working-class backgrounds (only 8 per cent according to the Creative Industries Policy and Education Centre) and how that is “robbing us of authentic voices”, as musician Orphy Robinson puts it.
Netflix and the National Youth Theatre call it the “class chasm”.
We must start listening
Musicians often point out that playing an instrument in school supports learning. The innovative drummer Andy Gangadeen explains: “It helps develop other skill sets both in school subjects like maths, and in wider life skills like collaboration, confidence building, listening, memory, critical thinking and quick decision-making.” Dr Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, the mother of seven of the classical music scene’s brightest stars, agrees: “The arts represent knowledge and skills that are central to the intellectual and emotional development of young people.”
Creative subjects can support the understanding of science, too. The digital artist and researcher Joey Holder – director of SPUR, an online educational platform that supports digital practices, and named as an Apollo 40 Under-40 Art & Tech – makes the point that the arts provide alternative pathways for learning, allowing children to explore ideas in non-verbal, visual, or tactile ways – offering a valuable framework for those who may not resonate with traditional Stem subjects.
Headteachers understand all this, which is why they are calling for arts funding in schools to be fully restored. Without more funding, arts subjects will disappear from the curriculum altogether.
Hyperbole? Not when you consider that over a third of headteachers, rising to 48 per cent in schools in the most deprived areas, cannot find teachers for arts subjects. The system is set into a spiral of decline.
If action isn’t taken now, where will the arts teachers of the future come from?
Five commitments to a UK creative success story
Nearly 2.5 million people are employed across the creative industries. Between 2010 and 2019 the creative industries grew more than one and a half times faster than the wider economy. They could create a million more new jobs by 2030.
That’s why Arts and Minds, a coalition of over 20 organisations, led by the NEU, and including Equity, the Musicians’ Union, and the National Society for Education in Art & Design, is asking the government to make five commitments to put creativity at the heart of learning:
- A right to study creative subjects
- Restore the status of arts education
- End exam factory culture
- Deliver a balanced curriculum
- Restore school funding for the arts
The arts are a UK success story that we must support.
Find out more about the campaign at www.theartsandmindscampaign.org.uk