I think a very relevant point being raised here. I agree very much to the points raised here but would like to put forth an arguement, for its sake. We see that art is increasingly becoming a very lucrative profession. We have the choice to join NIFT/NID/Film institute etc, and in these colleges, u have to achieve a minimum pass mark to be a graduate and hence be employable, at least on paper. If we see maths/science as basic skills that our students need to posess (so that they can become engineers, scientists etc) why not treat art in a similar fashion. Of course we cannot say that drawing is the only art form avaialble and that everyone must posess good skills in drawing, of course one should have the freedom to choose which art form to pursue. Then it becomes a poblem of finding a suitable person to review the child's skliis in art, if someone chooses tattoos as art, will we be able to find someone to evaluate the performance suitably..?