With recent news that the uptake of GCSE Drama has fallen by about 9% with the EBACC being cited as one of the reasons and the fact that fatuous ministers in the government feel that the increase of students taking IT is recompense for this; I can’t help but think that we are facing hard times for the arts again!! It wasn’t enough that the arts funding has been decimated over the last 5 years but with a call from government ministers saying that the creative arts are not important and students should focus on the sciences and maths, I am increasingly worried that the unemotional, barren dystopia of George Orwell’s 1984 is coming ever closer! Granted we do need engineers and mathematicians, so offer incentives to students to take the appropriate qualifications but don’t dissuade them from taking the creative subjects. I am the first to admit that a career in the arts is hard and not for everyone, and there are more hopeful actors and musicians on the streets of London than you can shake a stick at but the skills offered from taking subjects like Drama and Music are vital to industry as well as the arts. What these bureaucratic buffoons seem to forget is that it is the arts that have afforded them and others the skills of communication, team work and emotional literacy that is needed to succeed in business. Moreover have they taken the time to think where they would be without the creative arts? Who would write their speeches, film them, teach them how to deliver their speeches etc? Their myopic view of the arts is so shortsighted and damaging and could have a disastrous effect on the future of the country! The situation is worrying to say the least with schools as close as Poole & Bournemouth dropping Drama and threatening to drop Music or timetabling the creative subjects after the school day, young people are not going to be inclined to take these subjects at all. We need to encourage the arts to develop the future generations into fully rounded communicative and emotionally intelligent CITIZENS.