Erasmus+
Earl of Clancarty Excerpts(2 weeks, 1 day ago)
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The Earl of Clancarty
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they intend to negotiate the United Kingdom rejoining the Erasmus+ Programme.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)
My Lords, the Government have not proposed any plans for rejoining the Erasmus+ programme. However, we will work to reset the relationship with our European friends, strengthen ties, secure a broad-based security pact and tackle barriers to trade. We will look forwards, not backwards, by improving our trade and investment relationship with the EU while recognising that there will be no return to the single market, the customs union or freedom of movement.
The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree, nevertheless, that if the Prime Minister wishes to reset our relationship with Europe, there would be nothing more germane to this project than rejoining Erasmus+ and enabling the cultural exchange which, through its reciprocity, is at the heart of that programme—an essential element that the Turing scheme lacks? The EU Commission says that it is open to discussion. We have done this for research by rejoining Horizon; we now need to do the same for education but, most of all, for widening the opportunities in Europe for our young people.
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The Prime Minister and the Government are working hard to reset our relationship with our European friends. The Prime Minister hosted the EPC at Blenheim Palace, where he was able to engage with all our European friends, and he has recently visited Germany, France and Ireland to progress that positive bilateral work. I think the noble Earl slightly underestimates the impact of the Turing scheme, which has enabled considerable numbers of young people to go overseas to work and study. The Government support it and will want to think about how we can develop it.
Independent Schools: VAT Exemption
Earl of Clancarty Excerpts(3 weeks, 1 day ago)
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The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, for the opportunity to speak in this debate. This is about schools, but I will start by talking briefly about higher education, as it has a bearing on the debate. Ideally, all education should be free, and that ought to include higher education. I strongly believe that it was a grave error of the Blair Government to introduce tuition fees and effectively commercialise universities. Despite the problems we now face, if Germany can successfully operate a free higher education system, for example, why can we not do so if we believe in the principle of free education? I raise higher education in this debate because of the respective choices that face parents and students in every area of education, which may have little to do with principle but everything to do with necessity.
We have already heard from my noble friend Baroness Bull about the particular performing arts schools where, unless the state decides it is going to start operating its own tuition-free ballet school, for example, there is no option for the parents and students concerned—just as there has been no option since 1998 in higher education except to get a loan.
I agree entirely with the noble Baronesses, Lady Fraser and Lady Bull, about the need for certain exemptions. The Labour Government’s own dance and drama awards have potentially been caught up in this too. I hope the Minister can say that the 15 providers for performing arts training through these awards will not attract VAT.
To make the wider point, not every parent has sent their child to an independent school because it is what their parents did, but because what was required for the particular child has not been readily available in the state sector. They will scrimp and save to do so and make use of bursaries which will likely now be less available. This is true for the arts, which have been significantly diminished in the state sector, as the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, said, but have flourished in many independent schools. Nevertheless, let me remind the House what Keir Starmer said in his speech at the Guildhall on 14 March:
“Every young person must have access to music, art, design and drama. That is our mission”.
He went on:
“we are launching a sector plan to support the entire ecosystem of the creative industries”.
Schools are of course a major part of the ecosystem. The goal should be that the state sector arts education be at least as good as independent schools are now, and make that offer unnecessary. However, when you realise that, for example, independent schools spend on average five times as much on music as state schools currently do, this is a hefty challenge. Will the Government rise to this challenge and keep their promises on art education in view of their intentions for the private sector?
I make one further point, in the interests of co-operation—there is considerable adversity in this debate. I believe in good education for everyone whatever their background. However, I also believe in advances in education—Education, if you like. What independent schools have been able to do, unencumbered by the accountability measures and the narrow tunnel into which state education has been pushed, is experiment, and that should be valued. As my noble friend Lord Aberdare pointed out in the 11 to 16 year-old school education debate on 26 July, some independent schools have developed their own curriculum offers and assessment methodologies. The Government, the state sector and, indeed, Becky Francis could be learning from these developments in the independent sector so that education as a whole may benefit.
King’s Speech
Earl of Clancarty Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, I will concentrate my remarks on arts and arts education. I declare an interest as a visual artist. I am heartened by the change in language, particularly around arts education. I am sorry we do not have a specific category for the arts in this debate on the gracious Speech. The arts are an essential aspect of our democracy and this needs to be better recognised at all levels of government within the UK.
Over the last 14 years we have seen the progressive downgrading of the arts in our school education. According to research by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, only one in 12 people working in film and TV is from a working class background. Both the EBacc and Progress 8 were introduced specifically to sideline the arts. Both should go. They are accountability measures, not part of the curriculum. We do not need a review for this.
A good proportion of the 6,500 new teachers should be arts teachers, including dedicated teachers in arts subjects at primary school level. Will the Government improve ITT bursaries for art and design, and music, so that they are on a par with the sciences? The arts offer in state schools needs to be brought up to the same high level as exists in many private schools, as the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, said.
I trust that the rhetoric around so-called “low-value” courses in higher education has ceased and that changes made at the Office for Students reflect a different culture. More importantly, will the Government make it a priority to help to prevent more closures of arts courses threatened at universities?
The educational community would cheer to the rafters if the Government were to negotiate rejoining Erasmus+. Turing is better than nothing, but is a pale imitation of what Erasmus as a reciprocal programme achieves, and much more. Will they do so?
After years of cuts to local authority and Arts Council funding, what the arts need most is substantial state reinvestment. Do the Government agree? In terms of overall government spending, the moneys concerned are a drop in the ocean, yet the benefits accrued, including financial rewards, far outweigh such modest expenditure. It is embarrassing that one single city in Germany—Berlin—gets more state funding than the whole of the UK.
The Arts Council is overloaded, taking on much of what used to be funded by local authorities. There are instances where funding is urgently needed. I will give two examples. At the smaller scale is a brilliant museum located in a deprived area of a town in Buckinghamshire whose council funding is threatened to be cut off and the building and the attached gardens, used by local people, sold off. On that point, will the Government take steps to halt the sale of our precious public buildings and spaces, many used for the arts and other community activities?
Secondly, at the other end of the scale, following the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, will the Government urgently address the concerns around Welsh National Opera—an opera started originally by miners and teachers, and a company that through touring benefits both Wales and England? Emergency funding is required to stop musicians going part-time, but in the longer term England and Wales together need to review the current Transform funding model that so clearly penalises WNO.
There should be space for classical music and community projects, and the other arts including theatre and the visual arts, which often get overlooked. I ask the Government to take a look at the recommendations in the visual arts manifesto led by the Design and Artists Copyright Society. One recommendation is the appointment of a freelance commissioner for the arts to look at their rights and levels of pay. It is good that the Government are addressing workers’ rights—this should be a part of that.
In April, the Guardian reported that 74% fewer UK bands now tour Europe post Brexit, and that this affects their ability to tour America. The clear desire by the Government to address music touring is encouraging, but I also urge the Government to look at the effect of Brexit on all the creative industries, including the visual arts, craft and fashion. There is a growing sense that we will not regain the former pre-eminent position our creative industries had not just in Europe but across the world until we rejoin the single market.