Readers respond to an editorial calling for Andy Burnham to relieve pressure on arts funding in English schools Your editorial on the decline of music and drama in state schools (4 September) is right to highlight what has been lost. Education should enable young people to enjoy learning as well as achieve. Michael Gove’s reforms, rooted in a dewy-eyed vision of a mythical golden age of education that never existed, diminished arts subjects in which many students found success. The EBacc prioritised academic subjects and measurable outcomes; the arts were squeezed from timetables. Continue reading...