‘Arts cuts in our schools a tragedy’

EVERY year I look forward to the Purbeck Art Weeks Festival. For two weeks in June, I can visit artists’ studios as if I were a connoisseur. I can see painters, sculptors, ceramicists – all sorts of artists – at work with their canvasses, clay, textiles or stone. It is a real privilege to enter their world, if only for a short while.

This year, I was not disappointed. All over our beautiful Purbeck countryside, in our villages and in our well-loved seaside town of Swanage, artists demonstrated their skills – their artistry justly admired by residents and visitors alike.

The artwork in various media by Purbeck youngsters exhibited at Rollington Barn went straight to my heart. There were vivid colours, glorious shapes and bold designs. Here was proof of Picasso’s words: “Every child is an artist”.

The children, their parents, their teachers, should be very proud.

How sad, therefore, that our state schools are so poorly funded, especially so when it comes to the Arts.

Funding per pupil nationally in real terms fell by nearly 10% in the period 2009-19.

Underfunding continues to bite – the School Cuts Website, validated by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, calculates that 121 of Dorset’s 148 state schools face cuts this year, 2023.

In Dorset, £5.8m alone is needed to restore per pupil funding in real terms to its 2022-23 level.

Invaluable support staff have been made redundant, leaving over-stretched teachers with less capacity to run choirs or put on plays. Needing space and resources, arts subjects are too often vulnerable to budget cuts.

The Conservative 2019 manifesto promised a £110m ‘Arts Premium’ to support schools with their arts programmes and after-school enrichment activities. This had shrunk to £90m in the 2020 Budget. Despite a promise that the money would arrive by September 2021, it has yet to do so.

Moreover, the Conservative Government’s focus for schools is that they concentrate on ‘core’ subjects –English, Maths and Science. The so-called ‘Ebacc’, introduced by Michael Gove in 2010, excludes all Arts subjects. A school’s place in the league tables is determined by its ‘Progress 8 Score’, which reflects progress made in English, Maths and Science. This hard-nosed measure takes no account of how the Arts enrich our lives. It reminds me of Charles Dickens’ Mr Gradgrind, a character in his famous novel, Hard Times: “Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life”.

It is no coincidence that since 2010, the number of students taking up Arts subjects has fallen by 40% and the number of Arts teachers has fallen by 23%.

Some 68% of primary schools in England saw arts provision decrease in the period 2014-19. Music is no longer taught in over 50% of state secondary schools.

This is a tragedy. I think of those budding artists whose work I saw at Rollington Barn. The Arts Council in a recent report pulls no punches: “Great Art makes life better”. We forget that at our peril.