Literauture- BBC News

Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the English Baccalaureate, would be taught in schools in England from 2015.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said:
We have chosen core academic subjects to be part of the English Baccalaureate Certificate, and these subjects will set the benchmark for the whole system.

Other subjects are of course valuable and pupils will continue to study them - the EBC will obviously not prevent any school from offering qualifications in art, design, dance, drama and music.

The BBC article quotes the department of education saying:
We are spending £15m over the next three years to ensure that every child has access to the arts, including £3.6 million for schools to use towards visits to museums and galleries

Sir Nicolas Serota warned that the UK could lose the
Leading edge in creativity. He goes on to say:
There is a real risk that fewer and fewer schools will provide learning opportunities in the arts.
We cannot deprive an entire generation of children of the cultural skills that they will need.

Pupils at schools where the arts were integrated into the curriculum showed stronger performance in maths, English, critical thinking and verbal skills

We know that there is a great body of evidence now that has been gathered over the past 20 or 30 years which demonstrates that, where you have schools which give time to cultural learning, there is benefit both in that sphere and also to the other discipline

February's report on arts teaching in schools written for the government by Darren Henley, of Classic FM. This is what Sir Nicolas Serota was referring to.

My thoughts:
The whole feeling of the article (by Judith Burns) suggests that the arts would be taking a back seat in the education department.  The core subjects are clearly portrayed as the main focus of this new 2015 scheme. This is saddening and also seems unjust that the arts is now deemed as 'other sunjects' already the attitude leads little to the imagination.

Your thoughts?.....