Pressure builds for keeping Citizenship in a ‘truly national’ curriculum
Today, David Blunkett MP writes in the TES, ‘We need a curriculum that is truly national’. Citizenship must be contained and is ‘essential for democracy’.
Mr Blunkett, former Secretary of State for Education argues the Government’s curriculum review is a contradiction. Initial since schools with academy or free school status are not required to follow the National Curriculum, and second since the Expert Panel in its advice, argued for breadth yet recommended downgrading National Curriculum subjects which offer breadth covering citizenship, to the basic curriculum.
‘Leaving it to the individual educators is a recipe for something akin to the postcode lottery’ with schools left to ‘muddle along’ without evident expectations or outcomes for learners. He goes on ’The proposal that the citizenship curriculum does not contain core elements that describe “socially valued” aspects of life, or that “powerful awareness” is not inherent in preparing younger people for adult life, is plainly errant nonsense.’
Mr Blunkett’s article follows several weeks of growing support for the retention of citizenship amongst senior politicians. At the end of January following his attendance at the NFER research launch of ‘Citizens in Transition’ , Stephen Twigg MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Education stated
‘Even with citizenship in the National Curriculum there are huge variations between distinct schools and distinct elements of the nation,’. He continued ‘So I think we need to press for the outcome of the Curriculum Review to make citizenship more central rather than less central to schools’ curriculums.’
He added the focus on citizenship should extend to primary alongside secondary schools.
Just ten days ago the Government appeared to take a more positive public stance on the years ahead of citizenship when Lord Hill, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, responding to education questions in parliament stated
‘I agree with the noble and right reverend Lord about the significance of citizenship. Although the expert panel that reported to us in December suggests that citizenship should form element of the basic curriculum rather than the national curriculum, the initial sentence in its report emphasises the significance of citizenship and I highly much share that perspective. The matter – and this is true of a number of subjects that are area of study to the national curriculum review – is the extent to which we need to be prescriptive around programmes of study. We will reflect upon what the expert panel has stated and take other representations into account, and then bring forward our proposals in due course in the light of that.’
While this seems to endorse the position of the Expert Panel that citizenship is an significant subject and one that every school must teach, the key query is as yet unanswered. Will the subject stay within the National Curriculum with a statutory programme of study, or not? Now is a key time for decision making about the years ahead of the National Curriculum and the future of citizenship. The Government plans for the next stage of the curriculum review are expected to be announced anytime soon. For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
