Young people lead the campaign for better citizenship education
Younger people concerned about subject status and the years ahead of the A level in Citizenship Studies are leading the campaign for better citizenship education in schools.
Kenny Imafidon is campaigning to persuade Department for Education Ministers that urgent action is needed to strengthen the quality of Citizenship and political education in schools.
Despite a series of education policies (British Values, SMSC and the Prevent duty) where the subject makes an significant contribution, it is thought many schools are failing to offer high quality Citizenship education for their learners.
Kenny has already secured some 25,000 supporters for his campaign from concerned learners, educators, parents and bodies.
Last week, learners voiced their opinions via blogs written for the Crick Centre about the subject and the A level in Citizenship Studies which is presently offered by AQA. Amelia offered her insights to strengthening the qualification and questioned the plans to abandon the qualification after 2018:
I was pleased in year 10 to get away from normal classes to undertake an AS level in citizenship…Both the AS and A2 syllabuses were engaging and interesting, forcing me to think logically about matters, for instance, why do so many younger people support pressure groups rather than political parties and the functions and body of the judicial system.
There are signs of some positive growth in Citizenship teaching with schools coming back to the subject to offer the new GCSEs in Citizenship Studies. The inclusion of Citizenship in the new DFE Progress 8 measure of school performance is one reason for this alongside the continued demand for the subject from learners.
Nevertheless, information from the DfE workload survey published in the summer of 2015 demonstrates there has been a decline in numbers of educators, teaching Citizenship.
Providers of initial educator education are additionally concerned about the difficulties of attracting graduates to train as specialist Citizenship educators and of finding good teaching placement schools, and have called on the DfE to offer a training bursary to assist recruitment and raise the profile of the subject.
Last month Lord Blunkett of Brightside and the Association for Citizenship Teaching, a Parliamentary Year Book partner, met with Minister Nick Gibb to discuss these and other matters affecting Citizenship and how the DfE could act to address the status of Citizenship education in schools. For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
