Culture Counts - Our submission to Inquiry into 'the impact of experiencing poverty on young people at school'.
Education and Skills Committee (Holyrood) recently held an inquiry on the impact of experiencing poverty on young people at school, including their attainment and their achievement. This blog post introduces Culture Counts' submission to the committee. A download of our submission is available here.
Culture Counts: The Collective Voice of Scotland's Cultural Sector. Download our Submission to the Education & Skills Committee Inquiry.
Culture Counts works on behalf of a group of core members to place culture at the heart of policy making. We made a written submission to the Education and Skills Committee's inquiry into attainment and achievement. The submission responded to two of the inquiry's questions;
- How has your work supported the educational attainment of children and young people? What has worked well and what barriers have there been to success?
- Are there any services that you / your organisation has not been able to provide that you believe would work?
"Cultural education is not an additional but an essential component..."
Extract from the submission. "The cultural sector has an important role to play in Education and we can contribute to attainment in English and Maths; while making an important contribution to improving the mental health of young people which we understand to be a major part of how exclusion happens(1). Cultural education is not an additional but an essential component to ensuring that our young people achieve and that they are confident, responsible effective contributors who can express themselves well and in a range of ways."
Read more on attainment, achievement and other submissions to the committee on their web page.
The submission also highlighted specific cultural projects. "The Scottish Government allocates £10 million per year to deliver the Youth Music Initiative. This aims to create access to high-quality music-making opportunities for young people aged 0-25 years, particularly for those who would not normally have the chance to participate. A recent evaluation of the YMI concluded that it is contributing to building a fairer Scotland and tackling inequalities by engaging those who wouldn’t normally get involved, particularly young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage (2)."
The deadline for written submissions was Thursday 22 March 2018. You can download our Submission to the Education & Skills Committee Inquiry. Ongoing formal evidence sessions are taking place in April & May. If you want to help promote the value of culture in education, share this article on twitter and tag us @culturecounts.