Schools: Arts Subjects

Lord Geddes Excerpts
Tuesday 20th January 2015

(9 years, 9 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Nash Portrait Lord Nash
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I entirely agree with the noble Baroness on the importance of arts subjects, but we are starting from a very low base. Under the last Government, the number of pupils taking a core academic suite of subjects collapsed from 50% to 22%. Under this Government, the figure is back up to nearly 40%. We hope that with Progress 8 building on our EBacc we will now see an increase in arts subjects—and we have seen an increase in arts GCSEs in 2013 and 2014.

Lord Geddes Portrait Lord Geddes (Con)
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Does my noble friend agree that dance and music, in particular, form part of an all-round education?

Lord Nash Portrait Lord Nash
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I agree entirely with my noble friend; they are essential subjects. We hope that as a result of our reforms there will be an increased focus on them.