I am a strong advocate for arts education. 

On Monday I attended a function at Parliament with Minister Paul Goldsmith who said  - "It is so important that we expose children to all areas of the arts." 

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was quoted as saying that schools could “defer arts and music curriculum” in favour of maths and reading.

This is an extraordinary thing for a leader of a country to say - as it ignores the overwhelming national and international evidence that states that arts and music are essential to the well-being and education of young people. 

It also goes against The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (article 31) which states: 

Every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. Governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

The recent axing of the highly successful Creatives in Schools programme leads me to consider how this current government seems to not only be ignoring the rights of New Zealand children, but actively obstructing them. As outlined in a post- budget article on The Big Idea, Creatives in Schools was one of the victims of the ‘blunt axe’ wielded by this current government. 

Creatives in Schools (CiS) was an arts programme that ran from 2019 -2024, that funded schools and kura to partner with professional artists and creative practitioners to share specialist artistic knowledge and creative practice with ākonga and students.  

It resulted in hundreds of arts projects being undertaken nationwide and was delivered by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatū Taonga and Creative New Zealand.

The programme was an excellent way to ensure that Tamariki and Rangatahi throughout Aotearoa received consistently high-quality, arts-rich experiences in schools from professional artists. It was a win for often stretched teachers, who could partner with professionals to deliver these experiences. 

Reaction from the coalface

Head of Dance and Drama at Wellington Girls College teacher Katie Howes noted in a recent Post article: 

"Now [without Creatives in Schools] it basically falls back again on to individual teachers who are already juggling a million things and are under immense pressure to deliver this themselves whenever they can cram it in ... School budgets are stretched, space is stretched and teaching time is stretched. 

"When you when you don’t have the money or the extra creativity to draw upon, I think there’s a real danger of those opportunities being lost."

The value of such a programme was hugely beneficial to young people. I asked long-time participants, Tim Bray Theatre Company, to comment on the axing, Madeleine Lynch, Outreach Youth Theatre Manager replied: 

"For three consecutive years, our professional theatre company for children has worked with Deaf students from Ko Taku Reo Deaf Education to teach them drama skills with performances to their Deaf and hearing peers, as well as public and live-streamed performances. 

"The most recent project, with three performances, was led by a Deaf drama tutor, supported by two hearing theatre practitioners using NZSL. The outcomes and accomplishments of the students in each of the years was something that could not be taught in a usual class environment and saw an incredible lift in confidence, self-expression and pride in their Deaf identity and culture that their parents, fellow students and teachers were amazed to witness. 

"On hearing that future CiS funding had been cancelled, one NZSL interpreter expressed her shock saying 'you have no idea of the impact this project has on the Deaf community to see young students being so confident up there'."

Another regular CiS artist, Wellingtonian Mel Dodge commented that the programme provided "the opportunity for young people to engage with professional artists and cultivate their own love for self-expression and the arts. 

"I saw many examples of children who were disengaged at school making huge shifts in their learning because of the Creatives in Schools Project. Engaging with the arts helps to build confidence and creative thinking, which plays out in all areas of learning."

Making a difference

As well as empowering students and assisting and providing professional development to teachers, Creatives in Schools provided vital employment to hundreds of New Zealand artists, by providing substantial funding for a frequently underpaid sector (The Median Income of Creative professionals in 2023 was $37,000 - the median income for All New Zealanders was $61,800).

In June 2024, the Ministry unexpectedly announced; “While the value of the CiS programme is recognised, this decision is part of a broader strategic reallocation of funds to better support current priorities and maximise the impacts of associated initiatives.”

This announcement came despite consistent positive evaluations, including a 2023 report that stated; 

Creatives in Schools provides a powerful example of how to deliver to the school arts curriculum in the 21st century...Creatives in Schools continues to deliver important benefits to ākonga and students, schools, creatives and communities. The programme supports:

• enhancing ākonga and student wellbeing, helping to engage and connect them in positive ways, in some instances re-engaging them with schools
• raising the confidence of kaiako and teachers in designing teaching and learning projects that engage the creativity of ākonga and students across  the learning areas of the curriculum
• developing more sustainable portfolio careers for many creative practitioners
• building better home school relationships with whānau and parents.

Overall, the evaluators concluded that:  Creatives in Schools continues to be a high-performing programme, which makes a worthwhile and valuable contribution which the cross-agency working group should continue to invest in.

The Ministry are hoping to save $2.8 million and $3.2m a year with the cessation of this programme, but at what cost?

A few years ago, I received a letter from my children's high school about future changes to NCEA, the paragraph that stood out to me was "We need to be more deliberate in developing the competencies we know help students thrive as they move into the wider world – things like collaboration, creativity, resilience, critical thinking, and courage".  

These are precisely the competencies that young people gain from being immersed in and learning through the arts.  

As arts educators, we know this intrinsically.  Stripping arts as a core practice in education 20 years ago has undoubtedly led to a deficit of skills in young people such as collaboration, creativity, resilience, critical thinking, and courage.  The irony is that the stripping back of the arts in favour of STEM subjects, was an attempt to raise the numeracy and literacy rates in NZ children and yet - unsurprisingly for arts educators - we find ourselves 20 years later with (arguably) worse literacy and numeracy rates than ever. 

Creatives in Schools went a long way towards filling the gap in young people's education and providing these competencies - as well as taking pressure off already stretched teachers. It was a win-win and it is frustrating to have yet another excellent programme that had been developed at great cost and proven to enhance wellbeing for our children, axed with seemingly very little forward thinking of how this deficit will now be filled. 

CiS was an excellent example of a way that a Government could “respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life.”

Help make a stand

So what next? 

Maybe we need to try something radical. Maybe we need an education system where The Arts are the heart of our education system. 

Where young people are taught in a way that; increases literacy & numeracy, makes them more resilient, able to empathise, think critically, communicate, work well in a team and have courage in this ever-changing world. 

At the very least, I call on the government agencies to consider reinstating the CiS programme, which was well proven to have a lasting and positive effect on young people, teachers and artists throughout Aotearoa.

You can show your support by signing and sharing this petition to reinstate Creatives In Schools.

We also welcome creatives, educators, students and parents to add their thoughts and reflections on the Creatives and Schools programme here - to help mobilise the creative community behind this important investment in the future of Aotearoa.