Schools ministers 'must do better at boosting the arts'

A leading education expert today called for a revolution in the role of the arts in schools.

Sir Ken Robinson recommended in a report to ministers 10 years ago that schools should form closer links with artists and musicians and reform teaching to help children develop their creative talents.

But he says the Government has failed to embrace his agenda. In an interview with the Standard, Sir Ken gave ministers no better than a grade C for their work on cultural education in the decade since his inquiry.

The report had a "fantastic" response from parents, teachers and business figures, he said, but the Government was "half-hearted".

"I still think the report has not been embraced properly," Sir Ken said at a London Business Forum event. "Ten years on, the agenda has become more urgent, not less."

Sir Ken, an author on education methods who advises governments, international agencies and companies on developing creativity, believes that state education's obsession with exam results undermines the efforts of teachers to be creative.

"The pressure on schools to standardise and narrow the curriculum is often the result of what politicians believe to be the interests of the economy," he said. "When I speak to businesses they say exactly the opposite - 'we want people who can innovate'."

His report, All Our Futures, was produced by a committee of education experts, teachers and leading artists and scientists.

The group, which included conductor Sir Simon Rattle, theatre director Jude Kelly and Nobel prize-winning scientist Sir Harry Kroto, called for a national strategy for creative and cultural education that would break down the old divisions between academic, vocational and practical learning.

They said there should be better teacher training, more links between schools and artists, free music lessons and greater freedom for teachers to hold creative, imaginative classes. Sir Ken said: "I still stand by everything we said in the report. I would just put the whole thing in bold. We need a 21st century system of education.

"The problem is that the school curriculum became hijacked years ago by the universities. If you look at the best things that come out of the system you would have to conclude that the whole purpose is to produce university professors who love academic work.

"My point is if that's all we had, most of human culture would never have happened. Our education systems are dominated by a very particular view of academic ability.

"I was a professor at Warwick for 12 years. I'm not anti-academic. But academic ability is not the same thing as intelligence. People think it is."

Sir Ken believes that for children to be able to be successful at a wide range of work, they require skills that are "just as demanding as writing essays" such as dance, acting or writing poetry.

"We are talking about how to make the best use of everybody's talents," he said.