‘Huge step in the right direction’: arts leaders hail move to boost creative subjects in England’s schools

Cultural figures hope proposed shake-up of curriculum can reverse years of madness' in which arts were devalued

For years, Britain's leading cultural figures have warned that substandard arts provision in schools is devaluing the sector and creating an increasingly elite industry. But the government's proposed shake-up of the national curriculum, which includes scrapping the English baccalaureate (Ebacc), has been met with overwhelming positivity, with one figure saying it could end the madness of the past decade".

On Wednesday the Department for Education said it wanted to boost the creative subjects taken at GCSE as part of its wider changes to England's national curriculum.