The National Education Union (NEU) annual conference at the start of April passed a motion to defend music and the arts as an important part of the school curriculum. Motion 8 called for arts subjects to take their rightful place in the curriculum and for the NEU to work with the MU in campaigning to promote the arts to government, educators and parents.
The motion was first proposed by MU-NEU member Victoria Jaquiss (as recorded in Music Teacher, May 2023), who highlighted the arts crisis in state schools. As examples of this, she cited the lack of dedicated music rooms, the declining value/place of music within the curriculum, the erratic levels of funding, the effect on mental health and wellbeing, and how a lack of arts impacts the poorest children and those with SEND. The motion was the first debated at the NEU conference and it passed with strong support.
Commenting on the passing of Motion 8, Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: ‘Arts education should be a right for all students. But to many students, it is a right denied.
‘The glaring inequalities in provision have become a national scandal. While many schools in the independent sector have increased their spending on art, music and drama, state schools have experienced a draining away of resources. Specialist music provision is deprived of instruments, performance spaces and specialist staff. Art and drama struggle for curriculum space; English as a creative subject is under constant pressure.
‘The NEU will seek to work with unions in the creative sector to expose and resist this closing down of opportunity.'
The motion aligns with the #SaveOurSubjects campaign managed by the Independent Society of Musicians and the Edge Foundation. This campaigns for broadening the curriculum and halting the decline in GCSE arts entries and the number of specialist teachers.
