The British soul singer Laura Mvula has warned that a generation of young people will see TV programmes such as The X Factor and The Voice as the only way into a career in music because of cuts to creative subjects in schools.

Laura Mvula and Kano lead 2016's Mobo award nominations Read more

Mvula, 30, who worked as a music supply teacher before becoming an award-winning singer-songwriter, said music had been “cast off to the bottom of the curriculum” and risked becoming the preserve of the wealthy who could afford private lessons.

She said many of the opportunities she had as a student, such as free music lessons, were no longer available. “I was surrounded by teachers and resources that made me feel there were no limits,” she said. “There wasn’t anything that was off-limits to me because of money or because of who I am or where I come from. You want to play violin, then play violin, you want to study composition at a conservatoire, take up a scholarship there. We lived in a culture of freedom and availability.”

She added: “Without that they don’t have anything to stimulate their own musical growth – it’s only available to the privileged few who can afford private lessons.”

Mvula, who has several nominations for next month’s Mobos, says young people have little access to music outside TV. “What scares me is it would be so easy to fall asleep on this and then wonder why kids think the only avenue is to go on X Factor or The Voice – that’s what their perception of a music career is today.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Band practice at Pates Grammar School in Cheltenham. Photograph: Alamy

“At the moment they are mostly bombarded with mainstream music pop culture which in a sense isn’t really music, it’s a cultural thing. What they see and hear becomes what they aspire to – whether that’s an image of Beyoncé and how she sounds. That’s a different thing to offering a child something that’s tangible to them – go and listen to this thing, go and see a performance of this – not something that just feeds this celebrity culture that we’re all privy to.”

Her comments follow a report by the former Conservative education secretary Lord Baker, who has called for an overhaul of the “narrow” curriculum taught in schools. Baker, chairman of the Edge Foundation education charity, criticised the government’s ambition for 90% of young people to take the English baccalaureate, a performance measure that encourages schools to enter students to traditional, academic subjects. Since the introduction of the Ebacc in 2010, the number of English students taking music at GCSE has fallen by 9%. Entries to music A-level have also dropped. This summer 8% fewer students took the subject, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications.

Last year the Warwick commission, a comprehensive review of the creative sector, warned that arts and creativity were being “systematically removed from the UK education system”.

Mvula welcomed Jeremy Corbyn’s recent pledge to pump £160m of extra funding into schools to help pay for pupils to learn to play instruments, as well as take part in dance, drama and cultural visits. The singer, who worked in a Birmingham school for 18 months, said teaching was “profoundly challenging” because of the lack of time and resources available.

“Music would have been one lesson a week sometimes,” she said. “To get kids excited about music and show them as best you can what’s available to them, it’s not a lot of time.”

“I went into the school blindly, thinking I was going to be some Sister Mary Clarence/Whoopi Goldberg character, thinking I was going to transform the kids’ lives through music. While those were honourable intentions, actually the place that we’re at now – our cultural climate in terms of what’s available funding wise – we have to be 100,000 times more creative and smarter.”

Mvula is supporting the Action in Music campaign, a partnership between Casio, Classic FM and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music exam board, which aims to raise the profile of music education by providing free music tickets for young people and celebrating a music teacher of the year.