Music education in schools will be given a massive boost today with the English Baccalaureate system to be scrapped by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s long-awaited Curriculum Review. The “game-changing” axe represents a significant victory for the Daily Express’s Strike A Chord Crusade, which has been demanding that the arts-excluding measure of school performance be ditched. That will now happen with a new system to be introduced that will compel teenagers to take a wider range of GCSEs subjects.

It comes after an 11th-hour appeal from leading creative bodies across the country, who urged the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, in an open letter on October 31, to scrap the performance measure introduced by then Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2010. The EBacc has long been criticised by arts figures, who have repeatedly warned that creative subjects have been squeezed out by it, with children being compelled to take maths or science subjects instead.

The Independent Society of Musicians’ last-ditch letter also received the backing of Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, as well as creative unions including Equity and BECTU and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Leeds Conservatoire all backing the demand which has been a key request of the Express’ three-and-a-half year campaign.

The EBacc resulted in a “shocking” 42% decrease in GCSE arts entries between 2010 and 2024 with A-Level entries in music plummeting by over 50%.

Our campaign has been backed by many of the biggest names in British music including UK Music, rock legends Def Leppard, classical virtuoso Alison Balsam, rap star Vic Santoro and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

ISM chief executive Deborah Annetts said: “This is a historic decision and one that those who care deeply about music and creative education have been waiting for 15 long years for.

“It’s the right decision for schools, teachers and students, and brings the aspiration of every child receiving the best possible education, with creativity at its heart, closer.”