Asked by Baroness Garden of Frognal To ask His Majesty’s Government
what plans they have to ensure that life skills and citizenship are
taught in primary and secondary schools. Baroness Garden of Frognal
(LD) My Lords, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to
introduce this debate. I thank all who are taking part and
apologise that they have only two minutes to speak. I also bring
apologies from the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, that he is
unavoidably unable...Request free trial
Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure
that life skills and citizenship are taught in primary and
secondary schools.
(LD)
My Lords, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to introduce
this debate. I thank all who are taking part and apologise that
they have only two minutes to speak. I also bring apologies from
the noble Lord, , that he is unavoidably
unable to be with us on a topic where he has great expertise.
It is widely recognised that personal and social development are
key aims of education at all levels. However, there are only
minimal requirements on schools and funding pressures mean that
these areas do not get the priority they deserve. DfE advice for
education providers is that they should include
“other non-qualification activity to develop students’ character,
broader skills, attitudes and confidence, and support
progression”.
This might include their ability to travel independently, to cook
and eat healthily, to stay safe and to understand their
all-important personal finances. This should be at the heart of
education. Employers tend not to prioritise academic
qualifications. They look for resilience, problem-solving,
contributions to the community—life skills that impact on young
people, our communities and our country.
I am currently on a committee chaired by the noble Lord, , to look at education for 11
to 16 year-olds. As we take evidence, it is becoming increasingly
clear that our current school priorities are not fit for purpose,
whatever the Schools Minister, , may think. The EBacc and other
programmes
are directed to academic achievements, with GCSE, A-level and
university being the main drivers. Young people whose interests
and talents lie in more practical directions are largely
overlooked, their motivation declining with every year when
“Hamlet” and calculus are deemed more important than engineering,
catering, music, the arts—indeed, all forms of creativity.
Preparation for adult life is given minimal attention.
There are some brilliant citizenship programmes where young
people learn the key skills of working with others, communication
and self-management. They are taught about democracy; the
importance of voting; human, moral, legal and political rights
and duties; tolerance and diversity; and the invaluable
contributions that can be made by volunteers. They are advised of
financial literacy to enable them to manage their future incomes;
of course, this is particularly important in these times of
hardship and so much more relevant than algebra. When did noble
Lords last use quadratic equations? They were fun while they
lasted—I thoroughly enjoyed them—but by golly were they
transient. Pupils are pointed to sex and health education
although citizenship is not the same as PSHE, important as that
is. They learn about ways in which they can play their part in
the community, such as caring for others, old and young, disabled
or sick, who may need help in everyday life, and the satisfaction
that comes from activities that earn them money but help the
world to be a better place.
As chair of the cadet health check team, I am constantly
encouraged by the achievements and life skills of cadets, helped
immeasurably by the committed adult volunteers who change young
lives. The coalition Government boosted the availability of
cadets in state schools with the cadet expansion programme. The
University of Northampton recently produced a report showing the
immense value of cadet training to individuals and the community.
Of course, the independent sector has long seen the immeasurable
value of cadets and other uniformed youth organisations, which
breed leadership skills. It is to the credit of the Government
that they are continuing their support, particularly for
disadvantaged young people in state schools to have opportunities
to discover the immense variety of activities that will enhance
their lives. They could lead to careers in the military but that
is not the purpose of the cadets, whose main purpose is to
challenge the young to achieve more than they thought possible
and to face risks in controlled environments and under
supervision. The glee and satisfaction on the faces of cadets who
have faced fearsome challenges successfully is always wonderful
to behold. The boost it gives to self-confidence and self-respect
is invaluable.
At my remote girls’ school, there was no mention of life skills
or citizenship. I still remember the only lecture that touched on
our futures, which was when a rather superior gentleman gazed at
us and said, “Well, girls, most of you will get married so you
won’t need to bother with a career. A few will go to university
so you have another three years to think about the future. For
the rest of you, you could be a teacher, a secretary or a
nurse”—end of careers lecture. How he spun that out for an hour,
I still cannot remember, but what a bewildering choice for us
all.
When I graduated from Oxford, happily engaged to a wonderful RAF
pilot, I was again offered three options: teacher, secretary or
unemployable. In time, I was grateful to her for being so
brutally realistic. We moved 24 times in 30 years, never had much
money, and my husband’s frequent promotions always seemed to
carry additional expensive social responsibilities. I did indeed
drift into teaching and discovered the hard way that teaching
skills are very different from academic ones. None of my pupils
seemed interested in medieval French, which was a main
contributor to my degree. I also found work as a clerical
officer, a filing clerk and a copy typist—never, alas, as a
secretary. There were also times when I was indeed unemployable:
when having small children, when my husband’s postings called for
a full-time wife and when I could not persuade anybody to employ
me. It is difficult to be a good citizen when you feel that you
are no use to anyone.
When I was a “compulsory wife”, I was aware that we had no
guidance or training to help in our roles, which were apparently
essential to our husbands’ success. I proposed training to
include public speaking, chairing committees and comforting the
bereaved. I was particularly concerned with welfare counselling
in the hands of the untrained, as I had witnessed the harm that
well-meaning but ignorant wives could do. There were other skills
that we were just expected to have. Although there are no longer
compulsory partners, I understand that this programme still
exists at the Staff College for partners of senior military
people. There was a touching male assumption that women just had
relevant skills but, of course, that was always flawed. We all
need help with life skills.
When we appeared settled in London, I found work with City &
Guilds which was looking for graduates with teaching
experience—heigh-ho, I covered two of those—and stayed with it
for 20 years working on vocational qualifications, so full of
life skills and good citizenship. Why do the Government not fully
appreciate vocational or indeed technical or craft skills?
Like many women of my generation and older who were denied
careers, I turned to volunteering with the CAB and SSAFA, welfare
counselling and even as a reluctant organist in RAF chapels. My
desire to contribute came more from my family than my education.
My mother, who had a first-class degree from Cambridge, was
denied graduation—it was not until 1948 that Cambridge allowed
its women students to graduate—and she had to retire from the
Civil Service as soon as she married, but she did constant good
work with the church, marriage guidance and tutoring.
Of course, as I now know, we can all be good citizens in myriad
ways and life skills accrue with experience. The importance of
these subjects at primary school is vital, particularly for
children who find academic school subjects taxing. If you are
constantly near the bottom of the class, how important it is to
learn the life skills of tolerance, kindness, curiosity,
listening, hearing and speaking. Oracy is often overlooked in the
curriculum, but being able to express oneself plays a key part in
success in life.
For children whose home lives are limiting, discouraging or even
dangerous, the importance of school to enable them to cope and
thrive is crucial. Children who have caring responsibilities, and
there
are more of them than we appreciate, are forced to learn life
skills at too early an age. The school curriculum should be wide
enough to encourage and support them.
We need a long, hard look at our education system. I hope our
committee will have some pointers to a more relevant and
productive time at school. All children have interests and skills
which could be channelled into fulfilling lives. None should feel
that the only way to be noticed or make a difference is to end up
on the streets in gangs, empowered only by damage and
destruction. We must move away from the academic snobbery which
has limited employability and fulfilment for so many. We need
engineers, builders, retailers, plumbers, hairdressers and
artists.
Our creative industries are among the most productive in the
country, yet music, drama and art have disappeared from many
state schools. We hear that music hubs are to be reduced by 63%.
Hubs have spent years establishing relationships and partnerships
with schools and music establishments; there is a great danger
that the restructure will leave many young musicians and would-be
musicians bereft of music education.
It would revolutionise school for so many young people if their
future needs, interests and talents were recognised. It would
benefit the community and the country too if schools prioritised
turning out good citizens—children who feel confident that they
have the skills and knowledge to be useful. Will the Minister say
what measures the Government are taking to ensure that life
skills and citizenship are taught in all primary and secondary
schools by qualified and committed teachers? The next generation
deserves nothing less. I beg to move.
2.57pm
(Con)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, for obtaining
this important debate and for such an excellent introductory
speech. Schools do not single-handedly teach life skills and
citizenship but only supplement what is taught and mainly caught
in families. Of course, that can be far from ideal but,
particularly in how sex and relationships education is taught,
schools can contradict good values parents seek to instil in
their children, which are often faith-based. Parents have found
their children learning to be “sex positive” in their attitudes
to relationships, which means
“stepping away from monogamy-based assumptions”.
Sex education used to be based on evidenced human biology; now it
imposes gender and coercive liberal ideology, which is causing
unnecessary confusion and stress. Will the Minister confirm when
much-needed guidance in this area will be published by the
Government?
Similarly, citizenship education that teaches critical race
theory and other forms of cultural Marxism as fact is
indoctrinating young people and denying them the skills to
evaluate critically current strands of thought. The pervasiveness
of these ideologies highlights that everyone needs a belief
system to live by. By ignoring faith-based beliefs, schools are
in fact promoting atheism—the belief that there is nothing. On
what grounds do I say this? Teaching against committed family
relationships contradicts tenets particularly those
of Christianity, which is predicated completely on our status as
children of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Flimsy
manmade ideologies that insist there is nothing of the divine beg
the question that if there is nothing how come there is
something? It is impossible to have something from nothing. All
human beings face these existential questions, so what is the
Government’s attitude towards this de facto teaching of atheism
in state schools?
2.59pm
(Lab)
My Lords, I start by reminding noble Lords of my education
interests in the register, in particular as chair of the E-ACT
multi-academy trust and as a director of Suklaa Ltd. I thank the
noble Baroness, Lady Garden, for how she opened the debate,
although I say to the noble Lord, , that I think I disagreed with
pretty much everything that he said.
We must start by recognising the capacity limits in the time that
children spend in classrooms. The curriculum is already
overwhelming for teachers and learners and, if we are to add more
to it, it has to be at the expense of something that we are
willing to take away. The conundrum, however, is that children
are leaving school ill prepared to prosper in a complex, dynamic
world—surely, then, we should make more room for life skills and
citizenship education. Some argue for adding it to PSHE, which is
too often where citizenship is also taught now. When I was
Schools Minister, I added financial literacy to the subject, and
I welcome the inclusion of relationship and sex education, but
that part of the timetable is now full.
I argue that the conundrum can be resolved through rebalancing
the curriculum. Our “knowledge-rich” curriculum, the EBacc and
the nature of Ofsted inspections combine to deliver a highly
academic diet in primary and secondary schools. There is so much
detailed content crammed in that, as the Institute of Physics
told your Lordships’ Education for 11–16 Year Olds Committee,
there is no space to teach “the big ideas”. If we stripped out a
lot of the minutiae of the curriculum, we could free teachers to
be more relevant and engaging and include life skills and
citizenship across the curriculum. This was the vision of my
Private Member’s Bill in the last Session. I wanted a new aim for
the national curriculum, instilling
“an ethos and ability to care for oneself, others and the natural
environment, for present and future generations”.
More knowledge is not power; it is boring. But powerful knowledge
is exciting and empowering. It must be relevant to the here and
now, deliver life skills and make us successful sustainable
citizens, and it will follow when we deliver a broader and more
balanced curriculum.
3.02pm
(CB)
My Lords, as a state secondary school teacher myself, I agree
with the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, and thank her for this
opportunity. The teaching of these subjects is part of a more
fundamental discussion—as the noble Lord, Lord Knight, just
said—about our whole curriculum.
The Skills Builder Partnership and Edge Foundation recently
published a report that estimated that the lack of vital skills,
such as problem-solving, teamwork and leadership, cost the UK
economy £22 billion pounds last year. These skills, like the
creative skills that contribute to the UK’s vital creative
industry, are not passed on genetically or by osmosis; for most
children, they are mainly learned at school. If we can enrich
children with these skills, we can improve not only their life
chances but the chances of those around them.
We should be teaching life skills and citizenship all day every
day to our students as an embedded part of every subject, not as
a separate subject. Problem-solving, both mental and practical,
should have a much larger share of the curriculum. Teamwork,
critical thinking and analysis, physical activity, manual
dexterity and personal health and well-being would be far more
useful than the rote learning that still clings to much of our
national curriculum.
We should not be educating children so that they can go on to
university; we should be educating children so that they can go
into life. University should be a choice, not an inevitability
and, whether they choose to go or not, our school leavers should
be robust, practical, critical thinkers who are better prepared
for a life as healthy, compassionate, ambitious, self-aware,
resilient and employable citizens.
3.04pm
(Con)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, for
securing this important debate, and I thank her and all noble
Lords who preceded me. I, too, want young people to be educated
to take their full place as citizens, educated in this country’s
history, cultural heritage and traditions, which are
characterised by its protection of freedoms—economic, political
and, over time, religious—and its thriving voluntarism, with the
state kept in its place by an informed democracy and the ballot
box.
The question is: how can this best be achieved? Should—or,
indeed, can—it be done by designating teachers and lesson time to
potted citizenship classes, recruiting a cadre of teachers
trained in what officials believe to be the fashionable subjects
of citizenship today? At the very best, this can do little more
than skim the surface but, at worst, it could end up undermining
beliefs, traditions and aims that we all seek.
Today’s national curriculum already requires pupils in secondary
schools to be taught specific citizenship programmes for 11 to 16
year-olds. For instance, GCSE headings cover such things as the
development of the political system of democratic government; the
role of citizens, Parliament and the monarch; the nature of the
rules and laws of our justice system; voluntary bodies; and, of
course, as has been mentioned, the management of finances, to
mention but a few. Teaching these can best be achieved as a
by-product of learning important subjects such as history,
literature, classics, religion and mathematics, with teachers
educated to degree level in their subjects. It is good, confident
teachers who engage their pupils and can illustrate and make
comparisons with today, imparting the skills needed and the
aptitude to develop, whatever path in life is taken, be it
professional or vocational.
I urge the Government to focus on recruiting able, academically
qualified and committed teachers for all schools—primary as well
as secondary—in the central subjects. This is the surest way to
understand a culture characterised by parliamentary democracy,
the rule of law and individual freedom.
3.07pm
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome today’s debate, and I commend the noble
Baroness, Lady Garden, for introducing it in such a marvellous
autobiographical way. In my short contribution, I will say
something about the citizenship element of this debate. When you
look around the world, you see that democracy is in a very
fragile state. In many countries, including our closest allies,
it is under real attack, if not violent attack. We have a great
duty to help to preserve our democracy for the future, and our
education system will be a key part of our success.
The broad issues of citizenship should start early on, at the
primary school stage, in an appropriate way. Sometimes, I look up
at the Gallery and see a group of primary school children—in
fact, I can see one there now, watching our debate. It is a
pleasure to see them. We have had several groups here since this
debate started. I remember coming to this House when I was the
age of some of the people here now, and I sat in the side
gallery—it must have been about 1957 or 1958. I no longer
remember the subject of the debate, and these children may not
remember it either, but they will remember the sense of occasion
and something of the experience.
I am not saying that citizenship education amounts solely to a
visit to this House or another place, but it is an important
part—and our education department does a wonderful job of
bringing in students and young people to learn about this place.
I am one of those Members who welcomes the chance to see schools
and colleges, and I hope to do so more. I find that there is a
great deal of interest in how things work and in democracy. When
I last met a group of sixth-form students, they asked some pretty
pertinent questions about this place.
My time is up. I sometimes feel that, in a debate like this, we
should have the Minister’s speech first, so we can better
understand what is in the Government’s mind. I look forward to
hearing what she has to say. We cannot take anything for
granted—and an active programme of citizenship can help to
preserve the very democracy that we value so highly.
3.09pm
(LD)
My Lords, I was lucky enough to be a member of the committee that
looked at this issue, so ably chaired by the noble Lord, . In our
report, The Ties That Bind, we found that citizenship education,
which should be the first great opportunity for instilling our
values and encouraging social cohesion, was often being subsumed
into individual development. This is undoubtedly important, but
it is not the same as learning about the political and social
structure of the country, how it is governed, how laws are made
and how they are enforced by an independent judiciary. It also
does not offer an opportunity for practising civic engagement in
schools,
local communities and beyond. We said then that the Government
should reprioritise the subject by enabling a target for every
secondary school in the country to have a dedicated, qualified
teacher.
The Government’s main instrument for delivering citizenship
programmes is the National Citizen Service. I am a long-standing
critic of this organisation. It was born with a huge endowment of
political will from the Conservative Party, and it was given the
status of a royal charter body, which it neither needed nor
merited. It receives £63 million—the lion’s share of government
funding for youth services. Its website lists eight things that
it does: everything from health and well-being to working
together for success and employability. Deep down, in the middle
of that list, is citizenship and British values. There is no
detail about any of the work it does with schools, other than
statistics about the number of people and places that have been
engaged on short programmes that last for six weeks in the
summer. It has a new chair and a new strategy for the next five
years. Will the Minister agree that now is the time to have a
proper comparative analysis of the effectiveness and cost
effectiveness of the National Citizen Service, as opposed to that
of other organisations that have a long history of working in
this field?
3.11pm
(CB)
My Lords, I was a member of the Select Committee that produced
the report, The Ties That Bind:Citizenship and Civic Engagement
in the 21st Century. It exposed major failings in the teaching of
citizenship in schools. The Government’s response did nothing to
suggest that these failings were being addressed. The Liaison
Committee’s follow-up report, which was debated in April this
year, again pointed out continuing failures in this area. All
this is well set out in the excellent Library briefing.
The noble Lord, , the chair
of the original committee, much regrets that he is not able to be
part of today’s debate because of an operation. In April, he said
that
“our follow-up report made a number of recommendations at
paragraphs 72 to 77 about Ofsted’s work. It is no exaggeration to
say that Ofsted rejected the lot. It persistently mixes up
citizenship education with PSHE—personal, social, health and
economic education. In truth, they are completely
different”.—Official Report, 17/4/23; col. GC 178.]
Is the Minister satisfied that Ofsted now distinguishes
citizenship education from PSHE, or is the former still too often
subsumed in the latter?
I will again raise two of the many concerns from the earlier
reports. First, is a record now being kept of the number of
trainee teachers in citizenship education? If not, why not?
Secondly, are bursaries now available for those who want to teach
the subject, as there are in other subjects where teachers are in
short supply?
When we look around the world today, we see far too many
oppressive dictatorships, military coups, managed democracies and
elective autocracies. Of the 195 countries in the world, only 72
are democracies or flawed democracies. Democracy is a precious
historical achievement, but it is fragile, as the noble Viscount
just emphasised. There is no guarantee that it can survive. Young
people should be taught why democracy
matters and how to be a responsible citizen in democracy. Too
often, at the moment, this is not being done at all, or only very
inadequately.
3.14pm
My Lords, the diocese which I am privileged to serve has 138
church schools in it and another group of independent schools
with Christian foundations. I am glad to have the opportunity to
visit them regularly—I have been in one already this morning. As
I go round, I am heartened by the teaching I see already going on
on citizenship and value-based education. I want to comment,
though, on just a couple of things and to suggest that, while it
is important that the Government are clear what they are doing,
there is actually a vital role for families and a vital role in
collaborating with other bodies that are seeking to do similar
sort of work.
I want to comment on financial education. The Government
recognise the importance of financial skills, but research
indicates that children form their habits around money by about
the age of seven, yet no time is allocated in primary school
curricula for financial education: 5% of parents believe their
children are leaving school with the adequate skills to manage
their money. Though not part of the national curriculum,
programmes such as LifeSavers, which the Church of England is
working on, could be a huge help, teaching children about this
important life skill. What steps are His Majesty’s Government
taking to work further with organisations providing financial
education?
Then I shall say a very brief word on citizenship. In this era of
increasing partisanship and division, our fundamental British
principles of mutual respect and freedom of conscience are vital.
Again, the Church of England’s project, Living Well Together,
aims to help young people and equip them to better understand
different beliefs. Is the Minister aware of this project, and
will His Majesty’s Government give their support to it?
3.16pm
(Con)
My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness for obtaining this
debate and for her excellent introduction. My focus is on the
vital life skill of financial awareness and the need to include
financial education in primary schools. Children nowadays do not
handle cash every day and learn to budget, as some of us here did
in the past. As adults, they will have to manage rent, mortgages
and household bills. They must be equipped for this, but the
evidence is that too many school leavers are not. Children do not
see cash going out of their physical pockets. In a cash economy,
no cash means you cannot spend. But cash is no more.
As a child, I knew if I had the pennies to buy sweets. It was
easy. A seven year-old faced with a bank or card statement has a
much harder task. Children must therefore be taught. Skills must
be embedded young. To manage money and to budget is a vital life
skill. Without the skill, debt and disaster follow. We know that
gambling is a growing problem among the young as well as adults.
As the Centre for Social Justice has explained, money habits and
behaviours
that will stick for life are formed by the age of seven, but
two-thirds of primary schoolchildren receive no formal financial
education. While financial education is now taught in secondary
schools, since 2014, teachers say that too many children leave
without an adequate grasp of finance, so it must start before
then, in primary schools. We must act now and incorporate
financial education in primary schools. I ask the Minister: if
not, why not?
3.18pm
(GP)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, for her very
lively introduction to this debate and for the opportunity to
repeat a key Green principle—that education should be for life,
not just for exams or, indeed, just for jobs. That means we need
far more stress on such skills as food growing, cooking, first
aid and financial management. I am going to focus particularly on
the area of citizenship and begin by questioning the division
that occurs, with the idea that there are life skills and there
is citizenship. I see being a good citizen as an essential life
skill; the two things are not separate.
In the interests of being democratic, I am going to go to the
report from the Citizens’ Assembly on Democracy in the UK, which
was a participative democracy project run by the Constitution
Unit of the University College London and Involve. One conclusion
from that group of citizens was that good democracy requires an
informed and active electorate, so that people understand
politics, the consequences of their vote and how to hold the
Government to account—boy, do we need a lot more of that.
We need to think about how people actually learn, and for this I
am going to go way back in history to Confucius, who said:
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I
understand”.
The thesis I would put in this short speech is that we need to
see far more democracy in schools. We need to give pupils, like
the young people who have just been in our Gallery, the chance to
decide what happens in their schools, what they learn, how they
study and how the school operates. It is by doing that democracy,
starting from the younger stages, that we will truly prepare
people to be citizens who, as we must have for our future, make
politics what they do, not have done to them.
3.20pm
(Con)
My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, for
securing this important debate. Life skills in schools are
crucial in preparing our young people for a successful, rewarding
and happy life, and I would like to declare my interest as
vice-chair of the APPG on Financial Education for Young
People.
Financial literacy is a vital life skill that gives our young
people the ability to better navigate and manage their money and
gives them better chances in life. Research by Cambridge
University, published by the Money and Pensions Service, suggests
that habits and attitudes towards money are formed around the age
of seven. Further research in 2021 by the Centre for
Financial Capability has found only one in five primary-aged
children receive any form of financial education. Recent research
by Santander shows that over two-thirds, or 68%, of parents
believe teaching children about money should start young and be
on the primary-school curriculum, and nearly 70% of UK adults say
better financial education would have increased their ability to
manage their finances as the cost of living rises. If we can give
our young people a really good start to their financial education
in primary schools, it would help lay a solid foundation to
further their knowledge in secondary schools, where it is a
compulsory part of the curriculum.
Financial education is on the curriculum in primary schools in
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, so why not put it on the
curriculum in England? There are some really good examples of
financial education provision in some of our primary schools,
assisted by organisations like Young Enterprise, but it cannot be
right that not all of our children have the same access and, as a
result, potentially risk missing out on achieving higher earning
potential, less chance of debt, more savings—and the list goes
on. We cannot control what decisions young people will make later
on in life, but we can make sure that every child leaves school
with this important life skill. I believe beginning this journey
in primary school is necessary and it should be added as a
compulsory subject to the primary school curriculum.
3.22pm
(CB)
My Lords, citizenship teaching can help develop an understanding
and respect for the norms of society. But these norms are
constantly changing; what was considered acceptable in one
generation, can be seen as cruel and oppressive in another. The
less than equal treatment of women was the accepted norm until
quite recently. In the 1960s, it was perfectly okay to have
adverts in shop windows for accommodation to let stipulating “No
dogs, blacks or Irish”. In the early 1980s, it was lawful to stop
a Sikh child going to school in a turban.
A Christian hymn reminds us,
“New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good
uncouth”.
It is not only time, but also space that makes ancient good
uncouth. In our shrinking, interdependent world of the 21st
century, we cannot afford the old luxury of disparaging
foreigners, including Scots and Welsh, as lesser beings, to
strengthen our sense of unity and superiority. Nor should we look
on other religions with traditional negativity. We are, as
Sikhism teaches us, all members of one somewhat imperfect family.
It is important that we move away from the old narrow view of
identity and equip pupils to meet new challenges and
responsibilities in a shrinking and interdependent world.
Does the Minister agree that citizenship teaching should not be
based on past norms but on underlying ethical imperatives? The
often-ignored ethical three Rs—right, wrong, and
responsibility—must be taught and learnt in schools.
While the RE curriculum provides for the teaching of different
religions as discrete entities, we should also recognise ethical
commonalities between faiths,
which I believe should underpin the teaching of citizenship to
help children meet the challenges of the world of tomorrow.
3.24pm
(Con)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, , for securing this
timely debate. I say timely because it follows the recent
publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report,
Progress on disability rights in the United Kingdom. I pay
tribute at this point to the commission’s excellent chair, the
noble Baroness, Lady Falkner of Margravine, for producing this
report in the face of some very unpleasant distractions. I am
sure my noble friend the Minister will share my concern that, as
the commission has noted,
“Although some positive steps have been taken to combat bullying,
more needs to be done to tackle negative stereotypes or prejudice
against disabled people”.
As I can sadly attest, bullying and discriminatory behaviours in
relation to disability start at school, and that is where the
sneers, the snide remarks or worse—which I still encounter—need
to be nipped in the bud. This is central to nurturing a society
in which equality and respect for the individual inform
citizenship.
The plethora of DfE guidance on the importance of respecting each
other as unique and equal, and on how stereotypes, including
those based on disability, can cause damage, is all very welcome.
But in closing, I ask my noble friend, in responding to the
important question of the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, if she
could also explain what plans her department has to evaluate the
impact of its guidance in terms of the lived experience of school
and bullying from the perspective of pupils like Archie? Archie
features in the BBC’s excellent key stage two class clips film
for PSHE, “Archie’s Story: cerebral palsy”, which I commend to my
noble friend and indeed to all noble Lords.
3.27pm
(LD)
My Lords, I begin by thanking my noble friend Lady Garden for
initiating this important debate, and for her valuable, witty and
life-affirming contribution. I suppose we ought to start by
understanding what we mean by life skills. The list of life
skills varies depending on who you talk to and the circumstances
and needs of society. There are various lists, but, for me,
UNESCO and the World Health Organization hit the mark. They say
that life skills are problem solving, critical thinking,
effective communication skills, decision-making, creative
thinking, interpersonal and relationship skills, empathy and
coping with stress and emotions. I would add understanding,
relating and engaging with people from different backgrounds and
cultures to that list.
The next big question is how to develop and provide for these
skills. It cannot just be a curriculum unit on decision-making;
it must be a whole-school ethos which supports, develops,
encourages and ensures that all its practices are aware of these
issues. There must be related curriculum opportunities to
reinforce this, but it is the ethos that the governors, head
teacher, staff and parents develop which is so important. In
early Ofsted inspections, a school’s ethos and values were
not things it would report on, because when it went into the
school, it had an understanding of what the school’s ethos
was.
Finally, there are other skills children need so that they can be
safe and protected. One example very close to my heart is that of
life-saving water safety skills. I have a Private Member’s Bill
on that topic and, although I have run out of time now, I hope
that the Minister will take it on board.
3.29pm
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak today and thank the
noble Baroness, Lady Garden, for initiating and introducing such
an interesting debate.
Labour is committed, as part of our breaking down the barriers to
opportunity mission, to building a broad school education that
enables children to thrive and to develop life skills. Life
skills should be taught throughout the curriculum. When I was
chair of governors at a London academy, the pupils I met were
most keen to access financial education. Citizenship education is
vital. It is right that we ensure that children and young people
understand the role of active citizenship—including an
understanding of the role of government, Parliament and the
justice system—and develop an interest in volunteering,
responsible activity and activism, and critical thinking skills,
as well as an understanding of how we should treat each
other.
Part of that education must be the normalising of engagement with
politicians and institutions, and I commend the work of the
Parliament Education Centre, which opens up what we do. Many
Peers also take part in the Learn with the Lords programme, which
includes Peers being zoomed into classrooms all over the country,
at both primary and secondary level, as well as speaking to
children who are being home-schooled.
Even so, most children will not get the opportunity to come to
Parliament or speak to politicians on a regular basis, so
maintaining the teaching of citizenship in schools is also vital.
Good teaching that makes politics and civic engagement
interesting requires investment. The fall in specialist
citizenship teacher numbers is regrettable. It would be useful
for the Minster to tell us how the Government think that this
issue, which is part of a wider issue, will impact citizenship
and life skills. Can she also tell us when the Government next
intend to make changes to the citizenship curriculum, and how
they plan to embed better a range of life skills across the
curriculum.
3.32pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, , on securing the
debate and thank all noble Lords for their brief but pertinent
and thoughtful contributions.
Like every noble Lord who has spoken today, we want pupils to
leave school prepared for further study, work and other aspects
of adult life. That is why every
state-funded school has a duty to offer a curriculum which is
broad and balanced, which promotes the spiritual, moral,
cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and which
prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and
experiences of later life. I thank the right reverend Prelate the
for his remarks on the
important role of the family in all those aspects, alongside the
school. I also thank him for raising awareness of the Living Well
Together programme, which I have noted.
Subjects such as relationships, sex and health education and
citizenship directly support the development of life skills.
However, in the broad statutory framework, schools have
considerable flexibility to organise the content and delivery of
their curriculums. Schools can therefore reinforce personal
development in other subjects, and through their whole-school
policies and extracurricular enrichment offer, in a way that
focuses on what their pupils need. From her experience in City
and Guilds, the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, gave examples of
subjects which were about one particular topic but gave skills in
a number of other areas—that is exactly how the Government see
the existing curriculum. That issue was also raised by the noble
Lords, and .
I turn to statutory relationships, sex and health education. This
equips young people to manage their academic, personal and social
lives in a positive way. Teaching in secondary schools develops
knowledge about respectful relationships, including online,
importantly, and develops pupils’ understanding of health and
well-being, how to identify issues and where to seek help. The
noble Lord, , talked about the
ethical principles that need to underpin some of these
issues.
My noble friend asked about the timing of the
review of the RSHE curriculum. A public consultation is expected
this autumn, with revised guidance being published in 2024, and
an advisory panel is providing advice on what should be taught in
RSHE and at what age. I can clarify for my noble friend that the
Government firmly believe in the importance of religious
education, which is why it remains compulsory for all
state-funded schools at all key stages.
The citizenship curriculum is compulsory within the national
curriculum at secondary school and prepares pupils to play a full
and active part in society. It is organised around core content
about democracy and the political system. The noble Viscount,
Lord Stansgate, and my noble friend Lady Lawlor both raised this.
It enables pupils to understand their statutory rights, civic
duties and responsibilities and to become the active citizens
that your Lordships have described in their speeches today.
Other essential life skills such as financial literacy and media
literacy are specifically included in citizenship education. My
noble friends Lady Sater and were among noble Lords who
focused on the importance of financial literacy. I hope that the
House knows that the Government feel that financial literacy is
extremely important. It is covered in the national curriculum,
within the maths curriculum at key stages 1 to 4 and within
citizenship at key stages 3
and 4. That covers the functions and uses of money, including
personal budgeting and money management. It also
includes—unfortunately—taxes, debt and financial risk, as well as
financial products. In the primary citizenship curriculum, pupils
learn about where money comes from, how it can be used and how to
save for the future.
Noble Lords did not particularly dwell on the importance of PE
and sport within the curriculum, but the Government believe that
it should be a core part of what every good school offers to
pupils. It can help develop some of the essential personal
qualities, such as resilience and the ability to work well as a
team, which a number of your Lordships raised. That is why we
have committed over £600 million over the next two years to fund
high-quality PE and school sport in primary schools, with an
additional £57 million up to March 2025 to support more sport
outside school hours.
Noble Lords also touched on the importance of cultural education
in developing life skills. That is why we are investing £115
million in music and the arts up to 2025, in addition to core
school budgets. We have published a new music education plan and
we will publish a cultural education plan in 2023 to support arts
and heritage, working with DCMS and Arts Council England.
The noble Baroness, Lady Garden, was critical of the EBacc.
However, one of the key elements of it, which I know many of your
Lordships would agree with, is its emphasis on the importance of
learning a foreign language, given how that equips students with
the tools and the mindset to connect with people from different
backgrounds—which the noble Lord, , raised—and giving them an
appreciation of cultures, customs and history around the
world.
I simply do not recognise the description given by the noble
Baroness, Lady Barker, of the National Citizen Service. It works
very closely with and actively supports local grass-roots youth
organisations, and in 2022 over 120,000 young people took part in
its work, which is open to all 16 and 17 year-olds, with
particular support available for the most disadvantaged. However,
I would echo the recognition by the noble Baroness, Lady Garden,
of the important work of our uniformed youth organisations.
The noble and right reverend Lord, , asked about
Ofsted’s assessment of citizenship and education. It looks at
that in relation to both the quality of education and the
school’s support for a pupil’s personal development, so at how a
school prepares its pupils for the opportunities,
responsibilities and experiences of life in modern Britain, which
many of your Lordships felt was extremely important.
I am left with some of the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord
Knight—I apologise if I misquote him—about how we can tweak or
change the curriculum in a way to be able to fit in some of the
life skills which your Lordships have alluded to this afternoon.
I do not think that anyone in the Government disagrees with many
of the aspirations with regard to life skills that were raised in
the House today; the question is how we deliver them. The noble
Lord, , put it very well when he gave
the UNESCO definition of life skills but asked, “How do we
prepare for those skills?”.
Of course, the curriculum is an important part of that—although
not the only part, as many of your Lordships recognised.
I point out to noble Lords who question our focus on a
knowledge-rich curriculum that it is that curriculum which has
delivered our extraordinarily successful creative industries and
is delivering enormous innovation in technology, green skills and
other areas. There are others in the House, including the noble
Lord, , who understand better than I
do about how children learn, but my understanding is that without
basic knowledge in fundamental subjects, children cannot access
what the noble Lord, Lord Knight, described as the powerful
knowledge. Therefore, I am concerned when I listen to the House
suggest that we should take part of the knowledge-rich elements
out of the curriculum and replace them with life skills, because
we know what can happen if we do that. It is the deprived and
disadvantaged students who will be told that they do not need to
aspire or get academic qualifications, and that that is good
enough for them. No one in this House wants to return to the soft
bigotry of low expectations.
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