The Conservative Party have launched a new seven-point pledge to parents to keep political activism out of the classroom and instead protect the shared values that form the foundation of our society.
When parents send their children to school, they expect the focus to be on learning and high standards. Teachers should be able to concentrate on teaching core academic subjects, not burdened with ever more ideological demands or drawn into promoting political agendas.
Schools are already legally required to remain politically impartial. But too often, when schools cross the line, there are no consequences. The NEU arranged for primary school children from ten Liverpool schools to campaign outside Labour Party Conference last year for free school meals.
Children were taken out of lessons during the school day to push a live political cause, yet no teacher or school was held to account and the Education Secretary failed to intervene.
The gaps in the current system were exposed again when Jewish MP Damien Egan’s visit to Bristol Brunel Academy was postponed following opposition from pro-Palestinian campaigners and NEU members. Ofsted was sent in, but inspectors did not investigate the decision to cancel Egan’s visit, as they were only able to assess the school as it was operating when they visited rather than the agenda behind its actions shortly beforehand.
This is clearly wrong, and Ofsted should have the powers to inspect specific historic incidents, not just the school as they see it at the time.
Political campaigning has also been creeping into classrooms through third-party materials. Children as young as five have been fed inappropriate materials and activities from the campaign organisation Schools of Sanctuary, including writing Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers. The same group has provided books to primary schools that have promoted positive messages about illegal small boat crossings.
Policy Exchange's authoritative report on history teaching in schools, Lessons from the Past, found that over 80% of secondary schools have ‘diversified’ or ‘decolonised' their curriculums - and suggested this is driven by teacher training courses, 76% of whom run sessions teaching trainees on diversifying history in the classroom.
In some cases this has led to absurd and ahistorical resources being used to teach to children, such as a book which claimed black people built Stonehenge.
Schools should not be an intellectual ‘safe space’, but nor should they be vehicles for political indoctrination.
The priority should be delivery high-quality education that roots children in the values of our society, not the promotion of increasingly radical, partisan agendas. That is why the Conservatives are announcing a seven-point pledge to parents to properly enforce political impartiality rules, give parents greater transparency and keep the focus in schools on learning and high academic standards.
The seven-point pledge to parents is:
Under Conservative plans, Ofsted would be given explicit powers to consider political impartiality as part of inspections, and investigate specific incidents, including those that have already taken place.
Political impartiality would also be strengthened through teacher training and higher professional standards, with clearer guidance for teachers on handling contested political issues and a route for referring serious breaches to the Teaching Regulation Agency.
Parents would be given greater transparency over third-party organisations and materials used for PSHE, alongside a clear route to raise concerns.
The Conservatives would also reject Labour’s plans to introduce citizenship lessons from primary school, protecting time at a young age for the core curriculum. Schools would be expected to ensure children understand Britain’s history, institutions, culture and shared values across their education.
No school receiving public money would be permitted to require young girls to cover their hair as part of its uniform policy. This is about protecting the individual rights and freedoms of girls.
This forms part of the work Kemi Badenoch MP commissioned earlier this year, asking historian Sir Robert Tombs and former Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman to work with the Shadow Education Team on how to keep politics out of the classroom and strengthen a shared sense of national identity.
As part of that work, Sir Robert will set out how the curriculum can move away from an approach which too often emphasises what divides us and instead tell a shared national story. Sir Robert’s findings will be published in due course.
As part of our plans, we will also create new positive and uniting institutions. We will create a system of new national and local prizes and awards which schools can work towards, based on understanding Britain’s extraordinary history and the roots of our constitution. This will be a kind of civic and academic equivalent of the Duke of Edinburgh’s award and will encourage understanding of local and national history, our constitution and values.
For primary schools we will create an aspirational set of activities that pupils could experience, and work across government to help more primary schools access these opportunities. This “cultural curriculum” could include things like visiting Parliament or our courts; visiting one of our national parks or great landscapes; experiencing some of Britain’s traditional arts and culture; reading a classic British book; and experiencing ancient buildings like cathedrals.
Laura Trott MP, Shadow Education Secretary, said:
“Parents should be able to send their children to school knowing they’re there to learn. To get a great education, to learn core academic subjects and to have the best possible start in life. Not to have precious teaching time taken up by someone else’s political agenda.
“Schools should bring children together but too often identity politics does the opposite. We will kick political activism out of the classroom, but never our values.
“We will help teachers by closing off the routes campaign groups are using to push their own political agendas into the classroom, so teachers can focus on teaching. Our pledge to parents will protect time for core subjects, focus on high standards, give parents greater transparency over what their children are being taught and make sure there are consequences when the rules are broken.”
