Tate boss calls for arts to be at heart of education after study
A LEADING gallery and museum boss has called for the arts to be at the “core of education provision” in UK schools.
Maria Balshaw, head of Tate, spoke out yesterday, following the publication of a study that tracked students over three years.
Tate and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) have suggested five changes to ensure that the arts feature in all young people’s education.
They include offering a full range of arts subjects at GSCE level and ring-fencing cash for arts and culture in schools.
The study report also makes recommendations at university level and calls for Ofsted to specify in the inspection framework the minimum proportion of curriculum time to be spent studying arts subjects.
Mrs Balshaw said: “We cannot overstate the case for an arts and cultural education for all. Arts subjects must be at the core of education provision in the UK in our schools, be they state-funded or independent, and in our universities.
“We must listen to the reverberating sound of the 6,000 voices that are part of this important piece of research and act now. Otherwise, we will be failing the children and students who are the creative future of the UK.”
The study tracked 6,000 responses from young people aged 14-18, monitoring students and teachers over three years.
It pointed to increasing difficulties that state schools face in giving access and priority to arts and cultural education.
RSC deputy artistic director Erica Whyman said: “The strong, consistent and thoughtful message from the young people in this study is that arts and cultural subjects are uniquely important in equipping them for both academic and employment success.”
He said leaders needed to listen to the current generation of students, to ensure they had the skills “to thrive in the workplace”.
It comes after claims that the Prince of Wales was said to be “very concerned” about the decline of the arts in schools.