Dropping poetry as part of English GCSEs part of wider devaluing of the arts - Yvette Huddleston

The exams regulator Ofqual announced on Tuesday that poetry is to effectively become an ‘optional extra’ on the English Literature GCSE syllabus next year because of disruption to studies by the coronavirus pandemic. Students will still have to study a Shakespeare play, but can choose two out of the three remaining subject areas which comprise the 19th Century novel, post-1914 British fiction and drama – and poetry.

The decision to allow poetry to be dropped is, in my view, an extremely bad one. And so out of step with the times. If we have learnt anything over the past few months of lockdown, it is that creative engagement and expression is more important now than ever. The arts have helped to get people through – a large proportion of this has been via TV and streaming services; Ofcom released figures showing the average viewing for an adult has risen to six hours and 25 minutes per day or 40 percent of their waking hours – but the written word has been equally important. We have seen soaring book sales, people are reading a lot more than they have in the past, but they are writing too. Many have found solace in writing journals, short stories – and poetry.

Particularly young people who, after the dust settles, will be the ones who have been most impacted by all this. They are also the demographic who have been regularly engaging with poetry – creating it, reading it, sharing it on social media. A 2018 survey by the Children’s Literacy Trust put the figure at 48 per cent.

Since the reforms made by Michael Gove back in 2013 during his time as Education Secretary, English has been incrementally devalued. The uptake of English Literature as an A-Level subject is in sharp decline; some sixth forms don’t even offer it any more.

I don’t want to get all conspiracy theorist about this, but it seems to me that this cavalier approach towards arts education is part of the same attitude as the Government’s shamefully slow response to the urgent calls for an emergency package for the arts sector. When it eventually came it was, for many, too little too late.

Treating the arts as though they are ‘nice to have’ or a bit of a frivolous luxury is a very dangerous path to go down. And this Government is striding along it with privileged confidence.

Access to the arts is a basic human right, as any civilised democracy understands. Perhaps we are no longer living in a civilised democracy.

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