Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said too few children get to study creative subjects as she announced that Labour would review the education curriculum to give them greater recognition.
She told GB News: “My worry is that too few state educated kids are getting the opportunity to study creative and vocational subjects and that's having an impact in terms of their ability to go on to careers in music, in drama, and much more besides and that has to change.
“We've seen a real squeezing out of those creative subjects in recent years in our schools and parents told me just how unhappy they are about that. I'm determined that if we win the next election, the next Labour Government will turn that around.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster: “We do need to see high and rising standards in our schools and that applies to the important subjects of English and maths, of course it does, absolutely.
“But alongside that, I want to make sure that our young people have a broad and balanced curriculum, so they do get the opportunity to study subjects such as art and drama and music, which increasingly is not the case.
“Sadly, it's only parents really at the moment who have got a bit of extra money who might be able to pay for some of those extra activities that their children are getting those opportunities and too few kids in our state schools are.”
She added: “The change that we would make immediately is around one of the accountability measures by which schools are judged…at the moment, creative and vocational subjects are not recognised in the way that I think there should be.
“There are big benefits actually that flow from those subjects in terms of wider academic performance as well. I don't think we should view it as one or the other. I want young people to get a really strong foundation in the basics, but I also want them to find opportunities to live and to enjoy creative and vocational subjects.”
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