Philip Pullman has defended the study of the arts, saying “they’re of incalculable worth in what it means to be a human being”, and slamming the UK’s government of “philistines and barbarians” for failing to understand this.

As it becomes compulsory from September for secondary school children to study the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) core subjects of English, maths, science, a language and history or geography, Pullman insisted that arts subjects are also essential to education. “The arts are beyond price, they’re beyond value. They’re of incalculable worth in what it means to be a human being,” the author of His Dark Materials told Sky News.

Sky said that between 2010 and 2015, the number of pupils continuing with art and design at A-level dropped by 3%, while drama was down by 20% and music down 22%. The Department for Education countered this by saying that art GCSE entries are up 1.7% to almost 195,000 and music is up 2.2% to almost 50,000.

Last year, education secretary Nicky Morgan said that in previous decades, “if you wanted to do something, or even if you didn’t know what you wanted to do, then the arts and humanities were what you chose because they were useful for all kinds of jobs”, but that “we know now that couldn’t be further from the truth – that the subjects that keep young people’s options open and unlock the door to all sorts of careers are the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths)”.



“Every government secretary of state or minister should jolly well go to the theatre, go to a concert, go to an art gallery, go to a museum, become somehow interested in these things,” Pullman told Sky News. “If they’re not interested, they shouldn’t be in government, full stop. You’re lacking a human dimension of some sort if you’re not interested in the arts. And I think it’s a terrible fate to be ruled by philistines and barbarians as we seem to be at the moment.”

In June, schools minister Nick Gibb defended the government’s “emphasis on academic subjects” against the accusation that the introduction of the EBacc “crowds out” the study of other important subjects, particularly the arts.

“We should acknowledge that the curriculum always involves trade-offs: more time on one subject means less time on others. Over the years, I’ve been asked to add scores of subjects – from intellectual property, to Esperanto, to den building – to the national curriculum. Many of these are important and interesting. The question, though, is always whether they are sufficiently important to justify reducing the time available for the existing subjects in the curriculum, and I make no apology for protecting space for the English Baccalaureate subjects wherever possible,” said Gibb.

He pointed out that there would be time for “most pupils to study other subjects in addition to the EBacc”, adding that “music and art are statutory subjects in the national curriculum, and we are spending over £270m in music education programmes between 2012 and 2016”.

A Department for Education spokesman said in response to Pullman’s comments: “At the heart of our commitment to extending opportunity is our belief that all pupils should have access to an excellent education. The arts – including music, drama and dance – are a key part of this. That is why art and design and music are compulsory subjects within the national curriculum for 5- to 14-year-olds and why pupils also have to study drama, as part of the English curriculum, and dance, as part of the PE curriculum.”