Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the change in the uptake of arts and humanities subjects at GCSE as a result of the English Bacclaureate.

The Government’s ambition is to increase the number of pupils entering English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects at GCSE, including geography or history as humanities subjects. Since the introduction of the EBacc attainment measure in performance tables in 2010/11, and the proportion of pupils entering the humanities pillar of the EBacc has increased from 47.7% to 73.7% (2016 provisional). Among other humanities subjects, religious studies continue to be a popular subject at GCSE and A level with entries remaining broadly stable this year. There have also been increases in business studies and economics.

Although GCSE entries in arts subjects declined in 2016, between 2012 and 2015, they rose. Since the EBacc was announced the proportion of pupils in state funded school taking at least one arts subject has increased from 45.8% in 2011 to 47.9% in 2016.