Вариант 17

You are going to read a newspaper article on education. Read the text and answer the questions that follow. Decide whether each statement is True or False and provide your arguments drawn from the text to justify your choice. The proof should be given in your own words.

The arts are vital to a rounded education, to giving every child a hinterland, or a back-up, that will serve them all their lives. That’s something I firmly believe in. Why do so many private schools excel in their arts teaching? Why are the arts seen as important by parents who can pay for their child’s education? Shouldn’t this be true for children in state schools, no matter what their privilege or background?

By announcing that arts subjects will join the first round of reformed GCSE subjects to be taught from 2016, the Department for Education (DfE) has made it very clear that he sees the arts as absolutely equal to the core subjects in maths, science, languages and the humanities. They are part of the bedrock of a broad and balanced education. That’s good news.

Last week’s reforms to GCSE discount codes – which mean that GCSEs in dance and drama will no longer be grouped as one qualification in school league tables – was also good news. The risk that pupils might be discouraged from taking both dance and drama at GCSE has been removed. The two subjects will rightly be treated as demanding, and very different disciplines, worthy of study in their own right. Moreover, the newly-reformed GCSEs, including the arts subjects, are going to be “rigorous, demanding and world class”. We applaud this. That’s why we carried out a wide-ranging consultation with experts from the arts and education looking at how to make the reformed GCSEs academically demanding, creatively challenging and fit for the needs of the economy of the 21st century. And to their credit, ministers and others in the Department for Education have been more than willing to listen to our arguments. This is a moment of quiet satisfaction. But, of course, there’s much still to be done.

There is a fear that take-up of the arts subjects will continue to come under pressure. So those of us who believe in the arts will have to argue strongly as to why they matter. But our case has been made easier by the announcement today. There’s a job to be done beyond these formal measures. All of us in the arts know that creative ambition is essential to our cultural future, and that we need to invest in our children now, and in our future generations. As a sector we all need to tell that story, so that schools – and parents and young people themselves – can see what the arts offer in terms of personal development, challenging and enriching experience and career paths for the future. We also need to support partnerships and collaborations between schools and professional arts organisations so that young people can experience the arts outside as well as inside the classroom.

We’re not educational specialists – our passion and our expertise lies in arts and culture and what they can do. But we can act as advocates and champions of a well-rounded education system which values the arts. Today’s announcement about the future of the GCSE curriculum is a welcome signal from the DfE about their priorities – a heartening sign that others share that goal and that our voices will be heard.

1-5. Choose whether the statements are True (T) or False (F) and, to justify your choice, provide your proof from the text in your own words.

Example : (0) The statement is true because the narrator has never read a single book in the original and has not demonstrated any interest in the subject.