CULTURAL education in schools has sharply declined due to “virtually indefensible” reforms introduced by the government, the Tory founder of the GCSE declared yesterday.

Lord Kenneth Baker, who created the GCSE system as Margaret Thatcher’s education secretary in 1988, has blamed the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) for the decreasing quality of cultural education in Britain’s schools.

To obtain an EBacc certificate a pupil must achieve five GCSEs to a grade 5 standard (considered a “strong pass”) or above, in maths, English literature, English language, at least two sciences, a language, and either geography or history.