News

Continuing decline in the hours of arts teaching and number of arts teachers in England’s secondary schools

07 August 2019

Department for Education figures published in June 2019 show that between 2010 and 2018 the number of hours the arts were taught in England’s secondary schools fell by -23% and the number of arts teachers fell by -22%.

In the last two years the number of arts teachers, and hours the arts were taught both fell by -7%. The number of children in England’s secondary schools went up by +3% over the same period.

The EBacc subjects of History and Geography have seen rises in the number of teachers and hours taught of between +12% and +27% since 2010.

  • Design and Technology is experiencing the greatest falls with -40% fewer teachers and -43% fewer hours of teaching
  • Drama teacher numbers have fallen by -20% and the hours taught by -15%. These hours include teaching time from non-specialists
  • Art & Design teaching hours have declined by -16%
  • Music teacher numbers are down by -13%

Between 2010 and 2018 the number of children in England’s secondary schools increased by +2% to 3,327,970 according to the January 2019 school census data.

All data is from the Department for Education School Workforce in England statistics, and the school census data recorded in January of each year.

Headcount of teachers by subject

 

2010

2016

2017

2018

Percentage change 2016 to 2018

Percentage change 2010 to 2018

History

15,000

16,600

16,700

16,855

+2%

+12%

Geography

13,500

15,800

15,600

15,807

0%

+17%

 

Design and Technology

15,000

11,300

10,200

9,010

-20%

-40%

Music

7,500

6,700

6,500

6,525

-3%

-13%

Drama

11,100

9,200

9,000

8,899

-3%

-20%

Art & Design

13,200

12,000

11,800

11,874

-1%

-10%

All arts subjects

46,800

39,200

37,500

36,308

-7%

-22%

Hours taught by subject

 

2010

2016

2017

2018

Percentage change 2016 to 2018

Percentage change 2010 to 2018

History

153,400

182,000

185,700

190,873

+5%

+24%

Geography

138,700

170,100

172,700

176,241

+4%

+27%

 

Design and Technology

119,900

86,500

76,300

68,126

-21%

-43%

Music

92,700

83,600

80,200

79,305

-5%

-14%

Drama

95,000

82,900

80,800

80,819

-3%

-15%

Art & Design

159,800

136,500

133,500

133,713

-2%

-16%

All arts subjects

467,400

389,500

370,800

361,963

-7%

-23%

Data for Dance is not available in the released DfE figures.

Download this blog as a pdf: Arts teaching hours and workforce 2019.

 

Image credit: Leeds Museums Disc 18-1097