Making the case for creative education and the arts premium in education
Young people’s views on creativity in STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Maths) subjects are set out in a report from the British Science Association. It calls for the forthcoming Cultural Education Plan to include plans for integrating STEM and arts subject teaching. Findings include that:
- Young people are most passionate about using knowledge to overcome the climate emergency, the cost of living crisis, and challenges with young people’s mental health.
- While 80% of young people believe creativity is vital to overcoming these major societal challenges, they also have a limited understanding of how STEM and creativity can work together as part of overcoming these problems.
- Young people want to see more integration between STEM and arts subjects. At present, they feel that the education system makes them choose between being “creative” or “technically minded”.
Caroline Norbury of Creative UK makes the case for creative subjects to be included in STEM. In a recent article in the New Statesman she urges the Government to introduce the arts premium promised in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto.
The disparity in access to arts education between the private and state sector is detailed in an editorial in The Guardian. It emphasises how participation in the arts has fallen in state schools in the last decade, with policies such as EBacc, Progress 8 and austerity lying at the root of the problem. It also calls on the government to deliver on its promise of an arts premium as part of creating the labour supply of creative and arts professionals that the country’s growing creative industries require.
Ahead of the Spring Budget on 15 March Creative UK (the support organisation for creative people and business) have made a submission to the Treasury. The focus is on the achievements and potential of the creative industries and the case for tax reliefs and delivering the £270 million Arts Premium promised in the Conservative Party Manifesto.
A new campaign is calling on the government to protect arts and technology subjects in English secondary schools. Jointly run by the Independent Society of Musicians and the Edge Foundation, #SaveOurSubjects has been launched in response to the drop in entries for arts subjects and a decline in funding for music, arts and cultural programmes in schools.
And Ofsted has published a subject review of Art and Design that explores factors that contribute to a high-quality art education. It states that high-quality education consists of pupils being taught ‘a full range of subjects for as long as possible’ and notes how ‘primary teachers lack the skills, training and experience to teach a high-quality art curriculum’.