Education: English Baccalaureate Certificate

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for stimulating this important debate on a subject about which he is clearly passionate, as are other noble Lords who have taken part. I entirely agree with him about the importance of the creative arts. This Government are fully committed to a rigorous and demanding arts education and believe that artistic education in all its forms should be made accessible to every child. We are looking systematically at all aspects of the curriculum and qualifications in schools. We have taken steps to address poor value vocational qualifications, with changes to performance tables from 2014. The new national curriculum will be introduced from September 2014, and from 2015 teaching of new English baccalaureate certificates will start. I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Perry for clarifying the difference between the EBacc, which is the performance measure, and the EBacc certificates, which are the composite parts.

All pupils should have access to high quality teaching in arts and creative subjects. That has become apparent from a number of noble Lords this evening. Arts subjects, music and design and technology remain in the national curriculum from primary school to the end of key stage 3. Students are entitled to take an arts subject in key stage 4. We will publish shortly the draft national curriculum. In reforming it, we aim to give teachers greater flexibility over how to teach, so that more children can be inspired by great teaching.

I reassure noble Lords that we are not removing or downgrading any cultural subject in the national curriculum. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to study a strong academic core to the age of 16. Other high performing jurisdictions already secure this for their young people; it should be no less so for England. The noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, and others referred to the importance of that key ability in maths and English.

The EBacc is designed to tackle the inequality of opportunity that saw only 10% of pupils in schools with a high proportion of children on free school meals tackle EBacc subjects in 2010. The figure this year is 41%. The EBacc is helping to drive the take-up of modern foreign languages, about which many noble Lords are concerned. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, and my noble friends Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Watson, referred to the dramatic decline in modern languages when they ceased to be compulsory at key stage 4. We are certainly watching the effects of not having subjects as compulsory; however, there are no exact parallels between languages and the arts subjects in that way. The EBacc is not compulsory as an overarching qualification; it is still possible for schools to respond to their pupils’ needs through other qualifications.

The success of the EBacc does not mean the exclusion of other subjects, and schools which do well in the English baccalaureate also make time for artistic and cultural education and for sporting activities. There is time in the school day and week for them to do so. Strong schools, with good leaders, recognise that excellence in the arts helps drive academic success, and they use arts and cultural education to inspire and delight their students. That is why improving the quality of leadership is at the heart of the Government’s school reform programme. In response to the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, Ofsted is already tasked with checking that schools are offering a rounded education. We will certainly be monitoring closely to ensure that that continues to be the case in the coming months and years.

Following on from Darren Henley’s excellent work to review musical and cultural education, we have published a national plan for music education. I echo the congratulations of the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, on the well deserved OBE for Darren Henley in the honours list. We are also planning to publish a cultural education plan in the spring.

Noble Lords are suggesting that the Government are doing nothing to encourage arts and education. However, we are allocating £171 million over three years for the network of music education hubs, and I hope that that will address the enthusiasm of the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, for music. We know that there is a decline in GCSEs in music, but we are looking at ways to encourage and revive the interest in music through these hubs.

We have the internationally renowned music and dance scheme, which supports exceptionally talented young musicians and dancers. We are funding the creation of a National Youth Dance Company, jointly with Arts Council England. Along with Arts Council England, we are supporting the expansion of the Sorrell Foundation’s art and design Saturday clubs. In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, these clubs support the importance of design; they have had tremendous success so far.

With substantial support from the British Film Institute, we are developing a new national film academy. The noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, mentioned the importance of film. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, also referred to encouraging the take-up of arts in different ways. We also have the Shakespeare schools festival to give more children the chance to stage a Shakespeare play in a theatre. Schools receive an RSC tool kit to help teachers bring Shakespeare alive. I have been to one or two of these Shakespeare in schools events; it is inspirational to see the youngsters coming alive reproducing Shakespeare on stage. Schools of all abilities are involved in that.

I have heard it said that by proposing English baccalaureate certificates only in EBacc subjects, we are devaluing arts subjects. The noble Baroness, Lady Morris, my noble friend Lord Storey and the noble Earl mentioned the concern that we are devaluing the arts subjects and that unless performance measures recognise achievements in arts subjects, school leaders will not devote time to them. I do not believe this to be true of good leaders. Let me reassure noble Lords that we are considering these issues and shortly we will be consulting on future accountability measures. I would add in respect of whether the arts should become a sixth pillar that the suitability of an examination structure that is based on limiting internal assessment of arts and cultural subjects would not necessarily lend itself to arts and cultural subjects which rely on the demonstration of practical skills and portfolios of work. It is something else to take into account if we are considering adding pillars to the English baccalaureate.

The interest of noble Lords in this debate is evidence of the passion that this subject rightly inspires. The Secretary of State for Education and the Minister for Culture recently met a range of people in the world of arts, including Sir John Sorrell and Sir Peter Bazalgette, to discuss how best to promote excellent arts education. They have asked our leaders in arts and culture to champion and promote practical experiences and opportunities to complement the national curriculum programmes of studies.

Perhaps I may pick up on one or two of the other points made in the debate. I echo the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, that all disciplines are vital for our collective future, and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, about the need to monitor to see whether these subjects are going into decline as a result of the EBacc coming in. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Exeter reminded us of the importance of religion in music and arts education and, although not directly related to this debate, of the question about whether religion should be a compulsory part of education. I can assure him that all these issues are up for discussion as we move towards the new format for key stage 4. RE is a compulsory subject for pupils, who continue to take it at GCSE level in significant numbers.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes of Stretford, reminded us of the international baccalaureate qualification, which of course is taken at the age of 18, not 16. The English baccalaureate is the qualification taken at 16 years old.

[Baroness Hughes of Stretford]

There is in fact a middle years programme that is taken up to the age of 16 in the international baccalaureate. That is what I was referring to. Students up to the age of 16 are required to take eight subjects, not five.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

I apologise to the noble Baroness because I misunderstood her comment. The international baccalaureate certainly is a wonderfully rounded programme, but it is not suitable for all pupils—just as the English baccalaureate will not be suitable for all pupils. Schools will be able to opt for different ways of meeting the needs of their pupils. A number of noble Lords referred to the inspirational nature of the Olympic and Paralympic Games last year where we saw arts and music so brilliantly on show. They were a true credit to all the skills and talents that we have in this country.

I am conscious that I have not addressed all the issues that were raised in this brief debate, but I can see the strength of feeling in the House which no doubt will manifest itself again and will be relayed to the department when the discussions on these subjects take place. I thank all noble Lords for their wide-ranging and powerful contributions to this fascinating debate. I hope that I have reassured your Lordships that the Government are committed to the arts in the UK. We have demonstrated that commitment by investing more than £2.9 billion over this spending review period. We should never forget that a good education, including high quality arts and cultural education, has the power to change a child’s future, whatever their background. We should be proud of the UK’s international standing in the creative industries and acknowledge the invaluable part that the arts play in the life of the country.