A coalition of arts and education organisations - including the teaching union NEU - has warned that the schools sector is facing an “arts apocalypse” and has called on politicians to address what it describes as a “deep, multi-faceted and worsening” crisis.
The coalition warned that a “negative spiral” resulting from the “decimation” of the arts in schools and subsequent low take-up of teacher training for the subject “threatens the very existence of quality arts education in schools”.
The warning comes after a decline in entries to GCSE and A-level arts subjects in recent years and after the government recruited just 44 per cent of art and design teacher trainees it said it needed for 2023-24.
Research commissioned by Tes and published by FFT Education Datalab earlier this year found that the percentage of pupils doing any qualification in art and design fell from 31 per cent in 2015 to 27 per cent in 2023.
Coalition calls for end to ‘sidelining’ of the arts
The coalition today called for politicians to increase the supply of teachers in the arts amid the recruitment shortfalls.
It also called for a “full review” of curriculum and assessment, and an end to accountability measures such as Progress 8, which it said “sideline arts education”.
And it warned that at primary schools, “the demands of testing all too often push arts education into a corner of the curriculum”.
A statement released by the coalition today stated: “In an underfunded system, we have seen arts education decimated as school leaders are forced to make impossible decisions on an ever-dwindling budget and a damaging focus on a narrow curriculum.
“The eroding of the arts across the curriculum over a number of years has now gone far beyond crisis point: we are facing an arts apocalypse.
“The consequences of not changing course are bleak,” the coalition added.
It has called for a “significant increase in education spending, with specific funding for arts education” and for politicians to “no longer use damaging low-value language and ‘Mickey Mouse’ rhetoric to describe arts subjects”.
The 14 organisations that make up the coalition are NEU, AccessArt, WGGB - The Writers’ Union, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, Black Lives in Music, Equity, Musicians’ Union, One Dance UK, Susan M Coles (an arts, creativity and educational consultant), UK Literacy Association, Music for Youth, National Drama, London Drama and National Society for Education in Art and Design.
A DfE spokesperson said: “We are committed to pupils receiving a high-quality education combining arts with core academic subjects.”
Between 2019 and 2023, around half of 16-year-olds took at least one arts qualification, they said, adding that the DfE is investing around £115 million in music and arts up to 2025, as well as offering £10,000 tax-free bursaries for teacher training in arts subjects for courses starting in 2024-25.
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