FEATURE: PERFORMING ARTS IN SCHOOL
The benefits of performing arts for children
November 2019, Joel Kern, Founder and Managing Director of Make Believe, discussed the issue and set out the reasons why performing arts needs to be a priority in schools.
The UK has long held a global reputation for excellence in the performing arts, both as a home for talent that attracts culture-seeking visitors and as an exporter of talent. The industry benefits purveyors emotionally, which boosts our mental and physical health. Performing arts are also part of the fastest-growing sector of the economy – the creative arts – which contributed more than £100bn in 2017. But worryingly, the sector is facing an existential threat in the UK, brought on by the dual impact of a decline of formal performing arts education in schools and cuts by local authorities.
B
udget cuts across the performing arts sector in the UK have been well
documented, but are we damaging the future of tomorrow’s workforce, as well as detrimentally impacting the economy? In
Budget cuts The cuts to local authorities have eroded opportunities for young people to explore the performing arts. Despite the Department for Education’s claim that funding will be at its “highest-ever level”, reaching £43.5bn by 2020, a report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Nuffield Trust in September shows a drop in spending per pupil in England by about 8% between 2009-10 and 2017-18, which
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equates to around £500 per pupil. This reflects a 55% decrease in school spending by decimated local authorities. These cuts feel like a short- sighted solution that will breed a bigger issue, particularly with creative jobs touted to be some of the least vulnerable to automation. Further exacerbating the ongoing blow to the
arts, in a 2017 report, the English baccalaureate, or Ebacc, concluded that the number of entries for GCSE drama declined by 8.5%, while A-level entries for dance fell by 42%, drama by 33% and music by 38% between 2010 and 2018. A BBC survey in January 2018 revealed 90% of secondary schools had cut back on lesson time, staff or facilities in at least one creative arts subject, with some respondents reporting that they had cut GCSEs in subjects including photography, drama, music and art.
The four Cs In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, historian Yuval Noah Harari notes that many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching “the four Cs — critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity” – to give today’s children the skills they will need to form the workforce of tomorrow. A performing arts education provides all four skills, as well as being proven to increase creativity, wellbeing and health. The benefits of studying arts subjects are
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