Literature - Students taking arts at the GCSE level drops.

I have just come across an article that states percentages of students taking art subjects dropping the lowest it has been in a decade.

“In 2016, the North East experienced a particularly sharp drop in arts entries. The proportion of pupils entering at least one arts subject now ranges from 57.3 per cent in the South West to 47.8 per cent in the North East, a gap of 9.5 percentage points.”

Although the above quote does not prove that GCSE dance doesn't get the equal treatment as academic subjects, I also came across another quote that shows schools push the students towards academic subjects in order to make their school look better. Surely that is wrong? What does it matter to a school if the GCSE is in geography, or language or dance or music? A GCSE is a GCSE and if your student is taking part in the class and achieving well surely this shouldn't matter what subject this is in.

"It measures the percentage of students in a school who achieve five or more A*-C grades in English, mathematics, two sciences, a foreign language and history or geography at GCSE.
But critics say this has led to a decline in arts subjects, as teachers encourage bright students to enter for the Ebacc to boost the school's performance rating."

I honeslty do not believe you should encourage students towards the Ebacc just to improve your schools rating. It is a very frustrating but interesting read for me. Here is the atricle. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/09/21/number-pupils-taking-arts-subjects-gcse-falls-lowest-level-decade/