Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the number of pupils taking creative subjects does not fall as a result of the introduction of the English Baccalaureate.

Nick Gibb

This Government’s aim is that at least 90% of pupils will enter GCSEs in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects of English, maths, science, humanities and languages.

The EBacc has been designed to be limited in its size in order to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the curriculum for pupils to study other subjects of their choice, including creative subjects, alongside the EBacc subjects. Since the EBacc was announced in 2010, the proportion of pupils in state-funded schools entered for at least one arts GCSE has increased from 45.8% in 2011 to 49.6% in 2015.[1]

On 3 November 2015, the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate.[2] The consultation closed on 29 January 2016 and the Government response will be published in due course.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ebacc-and-non-ebacc-subject-entries-and-achievement

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-the-english-baccalaureate

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