Arts education: Call for four hour minimum entitlement

Schoolchildren should be entitled to four hours of arts lessons each week as part of a range of measures to improve arts education provision across England, a campign group has said.

The Cultural Learning Alliance's (CLA) manifesto also calls for parties contesting the forthcoming general election to commit to complete reform of the school accountability system to ensure it no longer adversely impacts expressive arts subjects.

The manifesto also calls for an entitlement to training for teachers and for them to have development opportunities in expressive arts subjects.

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The CLA says the proposed policies must be underpinned by an emphasis on rounded learning experiences, a focus on representation, breadth and relevance, and a commitment to ensuring the cultural sector responds strategically and collaboratively to meet the needs of young people in schools.

The manifesto blueprint has been published alongside CLA’s first annual report card, which according to co-chairs Sally Bacon and Derri Burdon, “reveals a stark picture of erosion and inequality”.

In the report’s foreword, Bacon and Burdon say that there will be no quick fix to reforming arts education, estimating it will take at least two parliaments to deliver. 

“We look forward to reporting again in a year’s time, and hope that there might then be early signals of some fundamental changes in our schooling system, even if we all know that it will take far longer to reverse the arts decline of the past 14 years,” Bacon and Burdon write.

“There may just be some reasons to be cheerful in 2025 [but] for now, the alarm bells are deafening.”

Report card

CLA says its report card is the first time key arts education data from between 2010 and 2023 has been comprehensively gathered together in one place.

Alongside detail on well-documented drops in GCSE and A-Level entries, it shares figures on the number of arts teachers and hours taught, as well as arts teacher recruitment and retention.

Between academic years 2011/12 and 2022/23, the decline in teaching hours across English secondary schools for arts subjects, excluding dance, was equal to 21%. In total, there are 15,030 fewer full or part-time teachers of arts subjects in English schools in 2022/23 when compared to 2011/12.

Over the same time period, the vacancy rate for art and design teachers has more than tripled, while the vacancy rate for music teachers has increased by a multiple of six. In contrast, initial teacher training recruitment to drama has improved, with an overall increase of 22%.

CLA found no available data on the number of arts specialists in primary schools, or how many hours are spent on each national curriculum area in primary schools, and is calling on the Department for Education to collect such data.

Enrichment gap

The report card also found an "enrichment gap", with young people from wealthier backgrounds having much greater participation in the arts compared to their peers from lower-income backgrounds.

CLA’s research highlights that independent schools often have much better arts facilities and staffing than state sector schools. It also found CVs of arts teachers in independent schools often have stronger industry backgrounds and networks, which can be used to support pupils into professions in the arts.

While the likelihood of engaging in performing arts in-school was found to be largely the same across all socio-economic backgrounds, children living in the least deprived areas are twice as likely to engage in performing arts outside of state school.

The analysis also found geographical differences in enrichment. Young people growing up in the South East were found to be twice as likely to play music outside of school compared with young people in the North East. Young people growing up in the most deprived neighbourhoods were also found to be 15% more likely to have stopped all enrichment activities during the pandemic.

“CLA has always asserted that access to expressive arts education is a social justice issue, and our report makes this clearer than ever,” Bacon and Burdon write in the report’s foreword. “These findings highlight the need for all schools to be resourced to ensure access to high-quality arts and cultural enrichment as a universal entitlement.”