What with all the disruption to education and exams over the last year caused by the pandemic, MT readers might not have noticed that the government has embarked on a major overhaul of post-16 vocational qualifications. If carried through to fruition, these reforms could drastically affect the educational landscape for aspiring music students.
In some senses, education and qualifications are always being reformed, as any beleaguered teacher will tell you. GCSE grades in England switched confusingly from letters to numbers a few years back, and many qualifications in ‘softer’ subjects have been elbowed out as the government promotes its agenda of ‘rigorous’ study. A central pillar of this agenda is the EBacc performance measure, which pushes schools towards increased GCSE entries in ‘core’ subjects, often at the cost of the arts. Since the EBacc was introduced, GCSE music and A Level entries have plummeted in state schools, which has been a tragedy in terms of open and fair access to music education.
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