Opinions please: To add Creative Subjects to the EBacc?

[RantAlert]

Just want to gauge general opinion on this.

I am an engineer. We are seeing more and more post-16 and post-18 come into apprenticeships with no practical skills and we are struggling to recruit.

I'm noticing from my own DC, they are doing nothing practical in school compared to what myself and DH did. Its frankly quite appalling the lack of practical skills and creative subjects my DC are doing, and how little curriculum time those subjects are given. They are just not valued, DT, electronics, engineering, Art, music and drama, reduced to 2 periods a week on rotation. Technology workshops don't exist in the schools any more - no woodwork, metalwork or electronics labs.

I’ve been asking a lot of questions of the apprentices, of many other people in the industry and not in the industry and the consensus is, the decline in practical skills and recruiting is because DT, Engineering, Electronics, Art (as well as other creative subjects) are all no longer seen as subjects which people should take at GCSE, and in any case, they haven’t got the time to take them. This is either because of the EBacc or because schools have stopped offering them (because of EBacc). In some cases, I know of some apprentices who are very good but were never given the chance to do the more practical subjects, they report having to have extra lessons of French or English or something academic because otherwise they wouldn’t pass them. I have heard of some potential apprentices not being able to join the company because the school pulled them off the DT or creative course they were on to focus on passing the EBacc subjects, therefore, they didn't get the all important DT/Engineering GCSE which would have meant they would be on the apprenticeship. THIS IS MENTAL!

I approach this from an engineering point of view, I know there are other subjects which are also suffering, but I’ve been thinking, what if I could set a petition up which asks for the government to add creative subjects to the EBacc? (Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the EBacc, but if we have to have it, can we actually make it broad and balanced like it was meant to be?)

By creative I mean:
• DT*
• Engineering
• Electronics
• Art
• Music
• Drama
• Other things which fit in this general category which I haven’t mentioned

*In the long term I would like to see this split out again into the different GCSEs it once was such as resistant materials, systems and control, textiles and others. From my point of view this worked better with more knowledge about an area rather than a very limited knowledge about everything.

I would see the final performance measure being something like:
• English Language^
• Maths
• Combined Science
• Language
• Humanity
• Creative subject (STEAM subject?)

STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths

^Yes, just language. Most of the young people I know have no interest in literature and a lot of them failed it or it was their worst grade. It was a waste of their time. Literature should be an option.

That’s 7, its balanced, 3 essay-based subjects, 3 STEM based subjects and 1 which crosses both.
This leaves room for 1-3 option subjects, of which triple science should be an option rather than 'You're in set 1 so you have to take it even though you're not interested but someone in set 2 is but they can't'.
These options can include some of the EBacc subjects like literature, another humanity or another creative subject or something completely different.

By including creative subjects this will stop the long term decline of uptake. The government is calling out for STEM qualified people, but they created the mess we are in by devaluing creative subjects. Introducing creative subjects (STEAM) to the EBacc has the benefit of bringing more skills to the workplace (which are desperately needed) which helps the economy and reverses the devaluing of the subjects the government started. There is some evidence that creative subjects can enhance learning as it helps people to think outside of the box therefore improving grades in the academic subjects. The government keeps going on about a broad and balanced curriculum, but don't value creative subjects. Gove wanted all schools to offer an education like the private section, which, just happens to really value creative subjects.

So, I've had my little rant and said what I think should happen. I know if I'm going to petition the government I need to do some real research and provide evidence but would really like to gauge public opinion.

So the question: What are others opinions on this?

[Title edited by MNHQ at poster's request]

I totally agree.
DS1 was told he 'had to have a language' as ' the top unis may require it'.
He therefore could not do art and DT which he wanted to do. So had to choose.
He's now taking Fine Art at uni and spending a lot of time in wood and metal work shops. DT would have been a great help!
He's never been asked for a language!
It's ridiculous to force kids into areas they hate. He spent 2 years loathing Spanish.

Sometimes doing a language makes sense.
I know a boy who went to Silverstone UTC which has links with the motor industry. They taught German - because a lot of the car industry is based in Germany.
That to me makes sense.
But doing French/Spanish/German just to get another GCSE ticked off is a waste of time if the student isn't very good at languages (like me) and simply isn't interested.

I'm with you OP, and we are a family largely made up of scientists. But rather than adding more "must do" subjects, I'd just scrap the whole EBacc concept and go back to giving more choice.
EBacc is very much still a thing where I live. A large majority of pupils at my children's school (high performing over subscribed leafy comp) take EBacc qualifying subjects whether they like it or not, and looking at data from the other sought after local schools it appears to be similar there.
Whilst I think the EBacc idea was quite good in principle, it hasn't really worked out terribly well and I think is having negative effects on non EBacc subjects. The new GCSE syllabi have contributed too, as they are definitely harder, and our school, like many others I know of, have dropped the number of subjects most pupils take from 10 to 9. So they must do maths, english lang and lit, 3 sciences, either geography or history and a MFL, leaving only one completely free choice. Pupils wanting to do more than one humanity or language obviously have to use their last option for that, leaving only small numbers of pupils opting for the non core subjects. One of my children was in a music GCSE class with under 10 pupils. Great for them, and they all did extremely well, but sustainable? Our school hasn't dropped anything from GCSE yet, but some A levels weren't offered this year due to low uptake so I suspect it's only a matter of time before the same thing happens at GCSE. Then how, especially given the financial pressures on schools, can you continue to justify employing permanent teachers in these subjects, and what implications does that have for KS3?
I'd like to see more breadth in the curriculum, not less, and I think the EBacc is probably having the effect of narrowing what is on offer.

There’s a lot of entries but the % actually achieving it is quite low in comparison. Seems like a lot of failed GCSEs. So it’s either really poor teaching or a waste of the kids’ time if you ask me.

Another option is that they are teaching BTEC/CTEC, these are not counted in the GCSE results even though they are equivalent.