Susanna Rustin (Here is a message from the Pupil Minister, 6 June) highlights the work which many schools are undertaking to try to help young people engage with politics, and see it as something relevant to their lives. In the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks, where the government has rightly highlighted the limitations of counter-terrorism operations and the importance of winning hearts and minds to our democratic and open values, it is more important than ever that we help all young people learn about democratic society. Every young person has a right to the opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to take part in society as an active citizen.
Yet the government has neglected the obvious route for doing this: by helping schools teach high-quality citizenship lessons. The number of trainee citizenship teachers is down from 240 in 2010 to just 54 in 2016. Training bursaries are no longer provided. The ever-increasing proportion of schools which are academies and free schools are no longer required to teach citizenship. Ofsted no longer takes much of an interest in whether they do, so – not surprisingly – many don’t. It’s time for an urgent rethink on the part of government. As we approach the 100th anniversary of major voting reform in 1918, which extended the right to vote to millions, and the 20th anniversary of the Crick report of 1988, which called for every young person to learn about citizenship, democracy is facing unprecedented threats. We need a national programme to raise the profile and quality of citizenship teaching, with the same focus that is given to subjects such as maths or history.
Tom Franklin
Chief executive, the Citizenship Foundation
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