Commenting on Political Impartiality in Schools, new
guidance published by the Department for Education today (17
February), Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of
the National Education Union, said:
“There is absolutely no need for new guidance on how to
appropriately handle political and social subjects in schools.
Very good guidance already exists and this is followed up and
down the country. It has always been the case that educators take
their responsibilities for teaching in these areas seriously and
carry it out with considerable thought.
“We note Nadhim Zahawi’s intention that he ‘does not seek to
limit the range of political issues that schools can and do teach
about’. But in practice his guidance will have the opposite
effect. Political Impartiality in Schools does not so
much clarify existing guidance as add new layers of mystification
and complexity to it. This could induce such a level of
uncertainty and caution in schools about ‘political issues’ that
they are less likely to engage with them. The losers in the
Department for Education’s 34-page game of obfuscation about what
is and is not a ‘political’ issue will be the students who are
denied the opportunity to engage with the most challenging issues
of our time. The warning lights that the government is flashing
around climate change, racism, world poverty and the legacy of
empire as topics of exploration are more likely to decrease
students’ engagement with learning than to stimulate it.”
