Music "could face extinction" as a subject in secondary schools in England, researchers have warned. They say music is being squeezed because of pressure on pupils to take subjects included in the EBacc school league table measure. Almost two thirds of 650 state school teachers, surveyed by Sussex University researchers, said the EBacc meant fewer students were taking GCSE music.
The English Baccalaureate or EBacc was brought in by the coalition government in 2010 for pupils achieving GCSE grade C or better in English, maths, the sciences, a language and geography or history.
The percentages of pupils entering and achieving the EBacc are among several measures used by government to determine a school's performance.
Government figures show the proportion of GCSE candidates in state-funded schools who took the EBacc subjects rose from 22% in 2010 to almost 40% last year.
But critics say this increase has come at the expense of the arts, with just 47.9% of pupils being entered for at least one arts subject in 2016, down from 49.6% the previous year.
Researchers, from Sussex University's School of Education and Social Work, surveyed secondary music teachers at 657 state and 48 private schools across England over five years.
Staff at about 60% of the state schools specifically mentioned the EBacc as causing a negative effect on the provision and uptake of music at their school, while just 3% believed it had benefitted the subject.
In the five years to 2016-17 the schools in the survey entered fewer students for music qualifications, with schools offering Music BTEC level 2 falling from 166 in 2012-13 to just 50 in 2016-17 and the number offering music GCSE falling by six percentage points - from 85% in 2012-13 to 79% in 2016-17. For students aged 13 to 14, the study found music was compulsory in 84% of schools in 2012-13 but by 2016-17 this figure had fallen to 62%.
