Relentless focus on STEM should be altered
Conservative MP Ed Vaizey has used a debate on increasing music education to blast the current ‘relentless focus on STEM’ in schools across the country.
Speaking to MPs in a debate in Westminster Hall, the former Culture Minister said that the attention on STEM, the three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) and the EBacc has created a ‘clear signal’ that teachers and school management will ‘not be rewarded for putting arts and music at the centre of their schools’.
Questioning the ‘enormous amount of confusion’ the ‘ever-shifting curriculum’ has made, Vaizey also said that teachers are now too afraid to incorporate music into their teaching because they felt they would be ‘penalised on the league tables’ - a fear that he stressed needs to be corrected.
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