It occurs to me that, while there are clearly invaluable projects in place thanks to organisations such as the BFI and Creative Scotland, they are, unfortunately only reaching a very small minority of people. To change the way people view film education, and to create any sense of diversity within the film industry, we must start at the bottom - and that means schools. But, as seen in my previous post, it seems our current politicians might have a slight fear unknown power of media education.
Realistically, we are relying on them facing that fear, starting to view media literacy as a fundamental part of education, and offering nationwide resources and teacher training if we want to see any substantial progress in this area in the next few decades. High hopes it seems...
The future diversity of UK creative content is in the hands of our country's major politicians, and the Warwick Commission report certainly gave at least one of the them something to talk about. The report, released last week, estimated the value of the creative arts sector to be £76.9bn (approximately 5% of the British economy), and went alongside figures published by the BFI that show our screen content alone generates over £6bn of that.
These findings triggered Labour leader Ed Miliband to give his first major talk regarding his party's arts and culture politics in advance of the May elections. He said it would be Labour's mission "to guarantee every young person, from whatever background, access to the arts and culture: a universal entitlement to a creative education for every child." The party leader went even further, promising to make creative subjects obligatory if any school wishes to acheieve an 'outstanding' rating from Ofsted.
If elected, and promises kept (!), Labour's policies could mean a step in the right direction for media education - albeit it more of a small shuffle. The promises are not film specific, nor are the party promising to make media education a standard form of literacy, but the policy changes would mean that high flying schools who regularly boast 'Outstanding' Ofsted ratings are put in a 'do or die' position when it comes to offering the arts, unless they are willing to give up their top tier rank. It might not be much - but it's a gesture.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, are - to most, unsurprisingly - much quieter on the issue of arts education and funding, with their only major input on the matter to this point being the an uproar from arts and humanities supporters when Education Secretary Nicky Morgan gave a speech that attempted to steer teenagers away from the arts. The Conservative politician, at a speech for the Your Life campaign, inferred that arts study at school will offer significantly poorer employment opportunities for students, and urged them instead to pick 'STEM' subjects; the sciences, maths, technology and engineering.
What we are not seeing from either party, nor, in fact any of the more minor parties, is the ongoing support for children choosing what they are good at, and most importantly what they enjoy. At 15 years old, when students are making their first tentative steps towards adulthood, they are asked to make GCSE subject choices. Given that these choice somewhat limit your choices at A-Levels (and therefore University, and future career...) it's kind of a big deal. This, for a lot of young people seems like the first big decision they have to make about their own future. So steering them blindly towards either a science or an arts path by using scare tactics is bound to stifle creative and entrepreneurial potential and passion, for fear that they might make the 'wrong' decisions.
The policies being put in place by the politicians today are affecting the future of the UK film and television industries, be it by way of convincing people their passions will not lead to a career, cutting funds, opportunities or resources, we cannot hope to have a completely creatively diverse or at all interesting base of creative content from UK creators if we are not nurturing or encouraging that interest from the get go. Nor, it would seem from the figures, would any government want to see the cultural industries go down the pan given their contribution to the UK GDP. Hopefully, whoever is elected in May will give this area the attention it deserves.
Footnotes
1) Warwick Commission report available at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/research/warwickcommission/futureculture/finalreport/
2) Ed Miliband on arts education: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/23/ed-miliband-pledge-universal-entitlement-arts-education
3) The Telepgraph on Nicky Morgan's 'STEM' speech: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11221081/Nicky-Morgan-pupils-held-back-by-overemphasis-on-arts.html
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