The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

likely to be measured publicly by examinationresults. In consequence they tend to enter as manypupils as possible for as many examinations as possible;they also tend to adopt teaching approacheswhich are thought necessary to secure examinationsuccess.' (DBS, 1979, p262)In practice, those activities which are not examinablesuffer in terms of space, staffing, time, facilities — andstatus. As a result, more and more teachers are turning tothe examination system to legitimise what they aredoing in the arts. We doubt the long-term wisdom ofthis for three reasons.First, many examination results are given in the formof grades or percentages. Only limited aspects of the artslend themselves to this sort of marking. The arts are noless important for that. Second, the examination systemis an uneasy mixture of a system of appraisal and one ofselection. Given the changing relationships betweeninitial education, further and higher education and theworld of work, it may be that these functions need tobe more clearly differentiated in schools. Third, we donot see that opportunities to pursue the arts in schoolsshould be limited to those with a special interest in gainingqualifications in them through examinations. Andfor those who do, we would continue to question theacademic bias of many existing courses and schemes ofexamination.Although we firmly agree that the arts should beaccountable along with other aspects of education, wewant to propose some alternative strategies.d Supply and training of teachersArts teaching, like all teaching, depends for its qualityand effectiveness on the supply and training of teachers.The reductions in teacher training have led to theclosure of many arts courses. The movement to an allgraduateprofession has increased the academic pressuresand reduced the practical component in thosecourses which survive. The result is a shortage of confidentand qualified arts teachers coming into theprofession. The present low status of the arts, for thereasons we have given, may discourage others fromseeking such training.We see a need to ensure a sufficient number and rangeof teachers with specialist skills, in the arts no less thanin other areas of the curriculum. In view of the manychanges in schools and in the training of teachers there8