As a Parliamentary Year Book supporter, you will be alarmed by exam board AQA’s recent decision to withdraw the only A level in citizenship studies. We implore them to think again.
AQA’s decision has serious implications for access to higher education, yet the repercussions will be even more profound: citizenship education risks losing credibility as a serious area of study and, in turn, as something that schools should take seriously.
The need for citizenship education in the UK has never been greater: younger people are disaffected with formal politics; a reduction in the voting age to 16 looks increasingly probable; and schools are required to prevent extremism and engage their learners with ‘British values’, covering democracy and the rule of law.
Citizenship studies combines academic awareness and appreciation with practical action. It makes an excellent contribution to the development of employability abilities and preparation for higher education.
Citizenship is on the National Curriculum and the new citizenship GCSE has just been announced. Learners must have the chance to progress beyond GCSE, not least since this is the case for all other National Curriculum subjects.
We wrote to AQA. The letter was signed by David Blunkett, Lord Phillips of Sudbury and a host of colleagues from higher education. They replied. They reiterated their position yet invited us to meet. We’re taking them up on that.
We shall point out that uptake of the full-course citizenship GCSE increased from 12,000 to 20,000 last year and that those learners need a proper, active, citizenship A level to progress to: not Sociology or Government and Politics, as AQA suggest.
We shall remind them that the A level carries full UCAS points and that Cambridge University, LSE and others refer explicitly to citizenship as an A level they look to when recruiting to a number of degree courses.
And we shall point out that Ed Miliband has promised more citizenship education, not less, if Labour gets into power.
We launched a public campaign last week and we’re passed our initial target of 500 supporters. The British Humanist Association put their weight behind it and leading education magazine TES covered it online. Even Alastair Campbell and AC Grayling re-tweeted us.
Our letter to AQA was a collaboration of the Association for Citizenship Teaching, Citizenship Foundation, Area of study Advisory Group for citizenship, Political Studies Association, Active Citizens FE and Parliamentary Year Book.
All sorts of individuals wish to retain A level citizenship and we’re working hard to convince AQA to alteration its mind.
Yet we won’t stop there: we additionally encourage other exam boards to step in and fill the gap. For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
Please join the campaign. Every supporter counts.