Sharp drop in staff teaching 'soft subjects'

The proportion of trainees recruited to teach media studies has plummeted by two-thirds, while textiles and leisure and tourism have seen their share halve in just 12 months, it was revealed. At the same time, proportionally more training places are being turned over to subjects such as history, maths, English and science, it emerged. The move comes after the Government introduced radical reforms designed to promote traditional disciplines that are in huge demand among employers and leading universities. This includes the English Baccalaureate – a new school leaving certificate that rewards pupils who gain good GCSEs in English, maths, science, languages and either history or geography. Damian Hinds, the Conservative MP for East Hampshire, who sits on the Commons Education Select Committee, said: “Under the last Labour government, soft subjects grew massively in schools while traditional subjects like history and languages were undermined. “Subjects like media studies are not taken seriously by good universities or employers and do not prepare pupils for the economy of the future. "We need more pupils studying maths and other rigorous subjects to prepare pupils for further study and jobs.” IN 2010/11, 13,091 students were recruited on to training courses to become secondary school teachers. It has dropped to 12,500 for 2011/12 because of the declining secondary school population. Of those accepted onto courses, growing numbers of places have been turned over to rigorous disciplines. Figures published in response to a Parliamentary question show that places to teach media studies fell by 66 per cent, leisure and tourism and textiles were down by 50 per cent, psychology and business studies fell by a third, while citizenship places dropped by 21 per cent. At the same time, the proportion of training places handed to history teachers was up by 24 per cent. Maths trainee places increased by 18 per cent, while numbers rose by 15 per cent in English, 12 per cent in science and 11 per cent in both foreign languages and geography. These six core subjects now account for 67.1 per cent of recruits, up from 58.5 per cent the previous year, it was revealed.