Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.

Ken Robinson’s line is most closely associated with his influential critique of standardized, test-driven schooling in the early 21st century. He argued that modern education systems—shaped by industrial-era priorities—tend to privilege narrow academic attainment (especially in literacy and numeracy) while marginalizing the arts, divergent thinking, and students’ individual talents. The quote reflects Robinson’s broader campaign, as an education adviser and public intellectual, to reframe schooling around cultivating human capacities needed for contemporary life and work. It is commonly circulated in connection with his widely viewed TED talk on education and creativity, where he urged educators and policymakers to elevate creative development to a core educational aim.

The statement asserts an equivalence of educational importance: creativity should not be treated as an optional enrichment but as a foundational competency on par with literacy. Robinson’s comparison is strategic—literacy is universally recognized as essential, so placing creativity beside it challenges the hierarchy that relegates creative subjects and imaginative thinking to secondary status. The quote also implies that creativity is teachable and cultivable through schooling, not merely an innate gift. Its significance lies in reframing educational success away from standardized performance alone and toward preparing students to generate ideas, adapt, and solve novel problems—capacities Robinson saw as vital in rapidly changing cultural and economic conditions.

1) "Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."
2) "Creativity is now as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."