Liz Forgan, the outgoing chairwoman of Arts Council England, used her farewell speech last month to accuse the secretary of state for education Michael Gove of abandoning cultural education, after the arts were excluded as core subjects in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) certificate.
Audio recording of Forgan's outgoing address
In a strongly worded valedictory lecture at the British Museum, entitled A Farewell to the Arts, Forgan spoke of her alarm at the absence of culture from the new qualification.
She said it left children’s education “dangerously exposed” and risked “robbing a generation of its birthright and failing in the duty we all have to continue our culture”.
The EBacc, which is slated to completely replace GCSEs by 2017, recognises good GCSE grades in maths, English, two science subjects, a foreign language and either history or geography.
By excluding subjects such as art, design and drama, Forgan said, “a big red signal is hoisted saying with total clarity: ‘We don’t care.’”
Leading figures across the arts and creative industries have expressed deep concern that arts subjects will be sidelined by schools if they don’t count towards the certificate.
Forgan pointed out that 15% of schools have already dropped one or more arts subjects since the EBacc was introduced in 2011.
She said: “A modest investment in the continuing and renewing of the culture of western civilisation would be a huge boost to struggling heads and young people who are being starved of the arts in their teenage years.”
Forgan also used the lecture to take a parting shot at what she regards as political interference in the cultural sector.
Her dismissal by former culture secretary Jeremy Hunt last year was widely viewed as politically motivated because of Forgan’s perceived closeness to the previous Labour government.
She advised her successor, TV producer Sir Peter Bazalgette, to “patrol the ramparts like a panther to protect the arm’s-length principle and freedom of artists from the considerations of party politics”.
Audio recording of Forgan's outgoing address
In a strongly worded valedictory lecture at the British Museum, entitled A Farewell to the Arts, Forgan spoke of her alarm at the absence of culture from the new qualification.
She said it left children’s education “dangerously exposed” and risked “robbing a generation of its birthright and failing in the duty we all have to continue our culture”.
The EBacc, which is slated to completely replace GCSEs by 2017, recognises good GCSE grades in maths, English, two science subjects, a foreign language and either history or geography.
By excluding subjects such as art, design and drama, Forgan said, “a big red signal is hoisted saying with total clarity: ‘We don’t care.’”
Leading figures across the arts and creative industries have expressed deep concern that arts subjects will be sidelined by schools if they don’t count towards the certificate.
Forgan pointed out that 15% of schools have already dropped one or more arts subjects since the EBacc was introduced in 2011.
She said: “A modest investment in the continuing and renewing of the culture of western civilisation would be a huge boost to struggling heads and young people who are being starved of the arts in their teenage years.”
Forgan also used the lecture to take a parting shot at what she regards as political interference in the cultural sector.
Her dismissal by former culture secretary Jeremy Hunt last year was widely viewed as politically motivated because of Forgan’s perceived closeness to the previous Labour government.
She advised her successor, TV producer Sir Peter Bazalgette, to “patrol the ramparts like a panther to protect the arm’s-length principle and freedom of artists from the considerations of party politics”.
