Design: Education

Department for Education written question – answered at on 18 June 2019.

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Photo of Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Culture, Media and Sport)

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of students taking subjects linked to design at (1) primary, (2) secondary, and (3) tertiary level, in each year since 2009; and what steps they are taking to increase the uptake of those subjects.

Photo of Lord Agnew of Oulton Lord Agnew of Oulton The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education

The number and percentage of students taking design and technology (D&T) and art and design qualifications is set out in the attached tables.

The government believes that both art and design and D&T are important subjects. All state maintained secondary schools must teach art and design and D&T to pupils aged 5-14. There is also a statutory entitlement for every pupil aged 14-16 to take D&T and an arts subject, if they wish to do so.

Like maintained schools, academies must provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Ofsted’s new inspection arrangements, which will be introduced in September, place a renewed focus on schools ensuring all pupils receive a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum.

The arts are an essential part of a broad and balanced education and high-quality arts education should not be the preserve of the elite, but the entitlement of every single child. Between 2016-20, we are spending almost £500 million on a range of arts and cultural education programmes.

At primary school, data from the Teacher Voice Omnibus 2016 survey revealed that the average amount of time spent teaching art and design and D&T was broadly similar to the amount of time spent teaching history and geography. GCSE art and design remains a popular choice and 2019 Ofqual provisional GCSE data shows the proportion of pupils taking this subject has increased since 2018.

The department has worked closely with organisations such as the James Dyson Foundation and Royal Academy of Engineering to strengthen the new D&T curriculum and GCSE. The new GCSE will be taken for the first time in summer 2019. To improve the quality of teaching D&T in schools, the department offers D&T graduates bursaries of up to £12,000 to enter the profession.

Both art and design and D&T GCSEs count towards the progress and attainment 8 secondary accountability measures, which is the headline measure of secondary school performance.

HL15985_table (PDF Document, 128.63 KB)

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