EBacc reforms will damage engineering
Parliament will today debate the plan to exclude technical, creative and artistic subjects from its new English Baccalaureate (EBacc).
The proposed EBacc, which is expected to become compulsory in secondary schools across England, will require pupils taking their GCSEs to study a minimum of seven and up to eight narrowly defined subjects: English literature and English language, maths, double or triple science, a modern and/or ancient language, history and/or geography.
Commenting on the plans, Paul Davies, Head of Policy at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) said: “While it’s great to see a big focus on science subjects in the new EBacc, we are concerned that the plans to narrowly prescribe the curriculum in this way will effectively drive subjects like design & technology (D&T), as well as creative and artistic subjects, from the curriculum.
“Given engineering currently accounts for 27% of our total GDP, and we are expecting a shortfall of nearly 2 million engineers over the next decade, removing subjects like D&T from the curriculum is incredibly short sighted. D&T is vital for engaging young people in the creative and problem fixing side of engineering. If they don’t have this opportunity at school, it is inevitable we will produce fewer engineers, which represents a genuine risk to our economy.
“We are calling for the Government to reconsider the EBacc to ensure its introduction doesn’t result in a decline in the number of engineers in the UK.”
