The government must stop prioritising Stem subjects to the detriment of others, the head of the English Association has warned.
Speaking to Tes today after yesterday’s publication of A-level results and entry data revealed that English literature fell out of the top 10 subjects chosen for the first time, David Duff said that the Department for Education needed to change how it promotes the sciences and maths over arts subjects such as English.
“The disproportionate support for Stem subjects can be clearly seen through the Department for Education’s narrative,” he said. “There are direct incentives to put pupils into maths A level with things like hub initiatives and pockets of excellence with extra funding.
“I have no quarrel with support for Stem subjects but it should not be at the expense of others,” he added.
Duff, who serves as professor of romanticism at Queen Mary University of London as well as chair of the Common English Forum, the body within which the English Association sits, said that falling interest in the subject at A level could also be traced to its approach at GCSE.
“We’ve been talking to the DfE for some time about these problems, since English was at the centre of the reforms of GCSEs in 2015,” he said. “Many teachers believe that the current requirements, such as the insistence on language study and using 19th-century texts, are big obstacles and are challenging for students.
“Last month, we once again put forward some very specific adjustments to the DfE and are waiting to hear back. It works as a sort of headless chicken at the moment and we don’t really know what way education policy is going to go, but we’ll keep pushing to reform the curriculum and get some proper support.”
He added that the government has done little to debunk the “false narrative” that students can either be proficient in numeracy or literacy, not both.
“The idea that’s been put about that you’re either good at arts or maths and science - that’s false and I absolutely oppose it,” he said.
“We’re battling these false narratives to try to address this moment of crisis.”
English literature was replaced in the A-level entries top 10 by geography.
Alan Kinder, chief executive of the Geographical Association, told Tes that while he was “delighted” with the leap, the growth in popularity shined a light on the lack of teachers with specialist expertise for the subject and called for support in the form of a national training programme.
