Heads and Governors should be demanding high quality Citizenship education, says President of NEEC 2013 David Blunkett MP
David Blunkett MP opened the North of England Education Conference in Sheffield this week by calling on Head educators and governors to rise above the current politicisation of education and demand high quality Citizenship in their schools.
In his speech David Blunkett, who is President of the North of England Education Conference 2013 (twitter #NEEC2013), challenged the contradictions as he saw them within current education policy and reminded delegates Citizenship is a statutory National Curriculum area of study that will continue to be inspected by Ofsted.
Blunkett stated, ‘We’re told that the Government doesn’t wish to politicise education, yet it has abolished the qualification, curriculum and development authority, and centralised decisions in the Secretary of State.
We’re told that we must have a creative, innovative nation to compete with the new emerging global economies. At the same time, we seek to set aside any emphasis on Details and Communication Technology (ICT), on Design and Technology (DT) or on thinking abilities.
Oh, and yes we wish the Big Society to avoid the riots of August 2011, to develop citizens of the years ahead. Yet we seek to downgrade and eliminate Citizenship and Democracy from our school curriculum.
By the approach, it still exists, it’s there being taught (sometimes extremely well). It is still and, as I appreciate it from the Chief Inspector, will continue to be inspected. Head educators and school governors should still be concerned with and demanding high quality Citizenship education.’
The former Secretary of State for Education was responsible for introducing Citizenship as a National Curriculum foundation area of study which has been statutory in secondary schools at key stages 3 and 4 since 2002. Nevertheless, academies and free schools are free from requirements to teach the National Curriculum. Numerous agree this has led to the status and leverage of the National Curriculum as being a force for raising standards and strengthening the quality of provision in schools to diminish.
Nevertheless, government has decided to retain a National Curriculum for secondary schools and the Education Minister, Liz Truss MP is reported to have confirmed during her address to the NEEC 2013 that government proposals for the revised curriculum would be published for public consultation in the next few months. For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
