‘Engaging the Public with Classics. Why bother?’ – Classics Poverty. Beth Meacham

‘Classics poverty’ is a term that has come to refer to the inaccessibility of classics-related subjects in schools across the UK, mostly relating to state-run schools, especially in areas outside of London and the South East of England. The 1988 Education Reform Act, which introduced Key Stages and the National Curriculum to the schooling system, implemented strict control over which subjects were taught at state schools and left essentially no room for classics. According to the Journal of Classics Teaching, in 2023, around 800 students entered the Ancient History A Level examination and 4000 entered Classical Civilisation. While this is a tiny proportion compared to the 806,410 total A-Level entries reported by Ofqual in the same year, it was nonetheless the largest percentage increase in entries from the previous year of any subject area, with 20% more students taking classical subjects than in 2022. This increase was also seen at GCSE level, with a 24.7% increase in classical subjects, the highest of any non-EBacc subject. The fact that so many students take interest in and enter exams for these subjects show that there is a significant interest among young people in classical subjects, and more would undoubtedly take these study options if they were available to them. However, across most of the country, the vast majority of state schools do not offer the opportunity to study any classical subjects.

My former school is the only state school in the whole county which offers classics subjects, according to the Association for Latin Teaching. This option was introduced by a teacher with the assistance of the Advocating Classics Education project. Having established Latin GCSE and Classical Civilisation A Level at my school, he later went on to begin teaching it at another school, and describes a relative lack of opposition to his encouragement of classical subjects; rather, there was a sense of “bemusement” from parents and teachers who failed to grasp the point of teaching these subjects to teenagers. He also reports initially small and unreliable class sizes at GCSE, with the class going from 9 to 24 to 13 in three years, but a more consistent 7-10 at A Level. While these numbers may seem too small to justify the presence of an entire department dedicated to the study of classics, this is a valuable opportunity, and without it I would have never known the option of going on to study classics at university was available.

A significant issue deterring students from classics is the pretentious attitudes of departments in universities such as the University of Cambridge. The 3-year classics course offered here requires an A Level in Latin, and students who wish to study classics but have not had the opportunity to study Latin at A Level must take the 4-year course, which involves a year of intensive Latin learning. With the new tuition fees being introduced by the government for the 2025/26 academic year, this adds an extra £9,535 to the price of the degree, as well as living costs for an extra year. A 2021 study concluded that students at independent schools were four times more likely to have the opportunity to take Latin A Level than those at state schools. In this, Cambridge severely penalises state school students for not having had the opportunity to take Latin at A-Level, which is extremely rare outside of private education (only 68 state schools out of 3,448 offered the A Level in 2019). This is only one example of the elitism that is deeply rooted in the culture of so many classics departments, and does nothing but discourage wider engagement in classical subjects.

Fig. 1. A Level Latin school types

As Hunt and Holmes-Henderson conclude in their 2021 study, “access to classics in schools relies on wealth or luck”. I was lucky in attending one of the very few state schools where classics is available and having the motivation provided by a passionate teacher to study the subject. However, as I have shown, many students have potential interest in the subject, but do not have the opportunity or means to be introduced to classics at school due to attending one of the majority of state schools that do not offer the subject. This is why public engagement projects are important; due to the restrictions placed upon schools by funding and curricula, a formal education setting will not be a viable place for many potential classics scholars to gain an interest in the subject. External forces- whether formal outreach programmes like the WCN or media like books, films, and podcasts- must undertake the responsibility of introducing potential students to the option of studying classics, and universities must take on the responsibility of ensuring their courses are open to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background.

Bibliography

Classics for All, “Impact Report 2010-2020”, online at: https://classicsforall.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/Classics-for-All_ImpactReport2010-20_Screen.pdf. Accessed 27 February 2025.

Classics for All, “Our Story”, online at: https://classicsforall.org.uk/who-we-are/our-story. Accessed 27 February 2025.

Constantini, L. “Classics at UK Universities, 2023-24”, CUCD Bulletin 53.

Hunt, S. (2020) “Editorial”, Journal of Classics Teaching 21: 1-4.

Hunt, S. and Holmes-Henderson, A. (2021) “A Level Classics Poverty: Classical Subjects in Schools in England: Access, Attainment and Progression”, CUCD Bulletin 50.

List of Illustrations

Fig. 1. Share of students by school type (A level Latin). © Arlene Holmes-Henderson. From Hunt, S. and Holmes-Henderson, A. (2021).