Fewer students in England are studying drama, media and performing arts at GCSE and A-level, while statistics, computing, physics and mathematics are becoming more popular.
Provisional figures for the number of people taking exams in England this summer, published on Thursday by exams regulator Ofqual, also showed an increase in interest in modern foreign languages after a long period of decline.
The number of French A-level candidates increased by 8% last year, Spanish by 2.3% and German by 3.1%, the latter reaching 2,280 candidates, albeit from a very low base. The biggest increase in A-level candidates was in Advanced Mathematics, where the number of candidates jumped by almost 20%.
In contrast, drama fell by 5.8% at A-level and 0.8% at GCSE, sociology A-level enrolments fell by 6.9%, media by 1.3%, geography by 3.9% and psychology by 2.4%.
At GCSE, performing arts applicants fell by 3.1% across England to just 6,675, while civics fell by 3.9%, while statistics increased by 20.3%, engineering by 17.4% and business by 11.2%.
Computer Science continues to attract growing student numbers, with provisional GCSE entries up 6.2% on last summer and A-level entries up 11.8%.
Overall, provisional GCSE intakes in England have risen by 4.8% since last summer, and for A-levels by 2.4%, in line with population growth.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the change in application patterns was linked to the government’s performance criteria.
Languages and computing, which are being taken in increasing numbers, are part of the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc), a government initiative to encourage pupils to take core academic subjects. Secondary schools are assessed on the number of pupils taking GCSEs in these subjects, and how well they do.
“The government has used high-stakes grading scales as a blunt instrument to influence the choice of curriculum and qualifications in schools,” Whiteman said. “While the number of applicants from year to year will inevitably change, this may explain the worrying decline in the number of people taking arts GCSEs, which has a knock-on effect on student choices in sixth forms and colleges.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said the figures showed a continuation of a “devastating” trend.
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“This week the government has once again attacked arts education, wielding harmful and inaccurate rhetoric about degrees in these subjects. Young people hear this, and schools and colleges are underfunded and limited in the subjects they can offer because of false and inaccurate performance indicators like Ebacc. It is no wonder that enrolments in arts subjects have almost halved since 2010,” he said.
Last year, a House of Lords committee investigating the education of 11-16 year-olds called for the Ebacc system to be abolished, due to concerns it placed “too much emphasis” on academic learning and written exams.
The Department for Education said the government’s knowledge-rich curriculum will equip pupils with the knowledge and skills they need for the future, and the proposed Advanced UK Standards would expand the reach of learning for 16- to 19-year-olds.
