The more I think about the fact that creative subjects are not in the EBacc, the stronger I feel about it and I just have to get it out of my chest.

I was reading Time Out London handed out for free at the tube station last week. On the very first page – the content page – it endorsed: “The Hot List – The next seven days in the world’s greatest city”.

If creative subjects are not included in EBacc, I can guarantee that in 15 years time, it would probably read, “The Hot List: The next month in London”, featuring regular sections of Arts (no longer separated into the current sections of Film, Music, Clubs and Cabaret, Comedy, Theatre & Dance), Shopping and Style, Eating and Drinking and Time In. Maybe LGBT would stay, maybe.

Why?

I come from a country where there are no creative subjects in school curriculum. Arts are for those who have the extra money to spend and the extra time to spare outside of school curriculum. In other words, those few – like me. We cheer when we finally have people who want to make it as artists, but realise there is no audience, not big enough to make it a fully-functional industry.

We have several shopping malls the size of Westfield Stratford. We have food and drinks – of all cuisines and in various types of eateries – that open 24 hours all year long. We have hundreds of TV channels on our cable TV, featuring programmes all around the world.

But our TimeOut is published once a month, perhaps much thinner than TimeOut London and definitely don’t have the right to say we are the world’s greatest city.

“Great arts for all” (which makes creative industry and the national culture) is one of the best things that made England and the rest of the UK great. Arts audiences need cultivating from young age. Please don’t deny the right of children to have the access to arts. National curriculum is to educate the next generation who will shape the country with forward-thinking ideas, not for the purpose of “getting into university” or “getting a job”. If creative subjects are indeed only for those who are willing to spend the after school hours to work on them… What a huge, huge step backwards.