Asked by The Earl of Clancarty To ask Her Majesty’s
Government when they will respond to the public consultation
Implementing the English Baccalaureate which closed on 29 January
2016. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Nash) (Con) My Lords, the results of the
consultation on implementing the English...Request free trial
Asked by
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The
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will respond to
the public consultation Implementing the English
Baccalaureate which closed on 29 January 2016.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, the results of the consultation on implementing
the English baccalaureate and the Government’s response
will be published in due course—I hope soon.
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The (CB)
My Lords, is this long delay because the overwhelming
public response voices the concern that the EBacc excludes
art and design subjects? I ask the Minister not to continue
to justify the EBacc with the New Schools Network stats on
the percentage of pupils taking one arts GCSE, which
represented a shift away from other qualifications, but
instead to look at the latest Ofqual figures revealing—two
years in a row—a hugely alarming 8% decline in the take-up
of arts GCSEs. The EBacc must be scrapped.
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I can tell the noble Earl that it is not a result of the
points he has made. We have been considering carefully a
great many responses, and there have been a few political
issues in the meantime. I am certainly encouraged to see
that we have been improving the quality of these subjects
with help from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the
James Dyson Foundation. The decline in the subjects to
which the noble Earl refers has been more than made up for
in the substantial increase in the number of pupils taking
IT and the now almost 70,000 pupils taking computing.
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(Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the GCSEs which are
just now finishing this term have seen a drop in every
technical subject and every creative and artistic subject?
If this trend continues, there will be no technical
education or creative education in schools for those aged
under 16. This is a disgrace and really is unacceptable.
Changes must be made to the EBacc, otherwise the Government
will not meet their objective to improve technical
education.
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I refer to my previous remarks about the take-up of
computer science and the dramatic increase in the number of
pupils taking IT. Of course, we must always remember the
very low base that we had in 2010 when only one in five
pupils was taking a core suite of academic subjects, which
we know are so essential particularly for those from a
disadvantaged background. I think that we should all be
extremely pleased that we have actually doubled the
percentage, which is rendering our education provision much
more fit for pupils, particularly for pupils from a
disadvantaged background.
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(Lab)
My Lords, can the Minister please explain the remarks he
made in answer to the noble Earl, ? I believe he said
that the loss of entries into the creative subjects is more
than made up for by an increased number of entries for IT
and computer science. Can he explain in what way those
things compensate for one another?
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Numerically. I think we all know that the quality of some
of these subjects was not what it might be, and that quite
a few people were taking some of them not because they
suited them but because they were easier. Of course all
schools teach many of these subjects, although it may not
necessarily lead to exams, and of course all schools have
to provide a broad and balanced curriculum—something which
the new chief inspector seems to be particularly focused
on, which I am very pleased to see.
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(LD)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that a GCSE is a good
basis for starting study? As there has been a drop of
50,000 in the number of those taking design and technology
GCSE, how do we get a good basis for those going on to
study creative and technical subjects if we cut a subject
such as that?
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I agree that a GCSE is an extremely good basis. In fact,
the drop in take-up of design and technology over the last
six years has been less than the drop over the previous
four years to 2010. We are keen to improve the quality of
those subjects and to give our pupils a wider choice of
subjects.
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(CB)
My Lords, given that the Government frequently salute the
creative industries for what they bring into the Exchequer
and the tourists they bring to this country, is the
Minister not concerned about the next generation of
creative artists, who are not getting the necessary
inspiration they need while at school?
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Again, this assumes quite a lot. As I said, it is clear to us
that a number of pupils taking these subjects in the past
were not the next generation of creative artists; they were
people that suited, for instance, the Labour Government’s
equivalence structure, whereby they were helping the
statistics. Heads will respond only to the incentives set for
them. We have set them an incentive to have many more pupils
doing a core academic suite of subjects. That seems to be
working and we should celebrate that. But we are investing
considerably in the creative subjects, and we have a number
of free schools and technical colleges focused specifically
on that.
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(Lab)
I very much note the concerns expressed by noble Lords on the
teaching of creative and technical subjects, but, perhaps
offering the Minister some welcome respite, I will look at
another aspect of this Question: the rather worrying trend
developing in the Department for Education and its Ministers
of the inordinate amount of time it takes them to respond to
consultations. In January this year, I asked in a Written
Question how many DfE consultations that had a closing date
between January 2015 and September 2016 had still not been
responded to, including the one in the Question asked by the
noble Earl, . The Minister replied,
saying that there were seven—one of which, incidentally, was
the revision of fire safety for buildings in schools. That
cavalier approach may have been something the Government felt
they could get away with when they enjoyed a majority. Now
that the Tories are merely the largest of the minority
parties down the Corridor, will the Minister commit to noble
Lords that he will ensure his department replies to
consultations in a much timelier manner?
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I do not think that this slow pace of response is in and of
itself necessarily cavalier, but I have said I very much hope
that our response on EBacc will be available shortly, and I
shall do all I can to try to make sure that we respond
quickly in future.
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(Con)
My Lords, is my noble friend truly satisfied that we are
exposing our young people to the beauties of art and music,
and giving them a proper opportunity to participate, in what
is becoming an increasingly depersonalised age where young
people spend more time with their machines and hand-held
devices than they do with their fellows?
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I certainly agree with my noble friend’s comment about the
amount of time our young people spend gazing at screens of
one sort or another and the balance that subjects such as
music, dance and drama can provide. Of course, all good
schools do this, not necessarily aiming at exams—music and
dance are compulsory in key stages 2 and 3, as is drama up to
key stage 4. As I said, the chief inspector is very focused
on this. I am sure that noble Lords will see the fruits of
that work in due course.
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