The article points out the five essential changes we believe are necessary to improve the draft programmes of study. These are to:

• Include a clear requirement to teach about human rights
• Clarify active citizenship is not just volunteering but involves pupils taking part in genuine social and democratic action in their schools and communities
• Enhance the new requirement for financial education to include economic understanding and public finance
• Ensure key stage 3 is not solely focused on the UK but includes the European, international and global dimensions of the subject
• Improve the subject aims and show appropriate progression between key stages 3 and 4, especially in key aspects such as the law.

To read the article in full see http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/news/citizenship-is-not-just-volunteering/

We will be publishing our response to the DFE consultation soon.

We urge our supporters to get online and have their say about the proposals.

Lord Adonis said in his speech,

It was Aristotle who said: “We are what we repeatedly do.” This is of course why education is so important to forming social habits as well as to acquiring information and skills.

In this country we are ambivalent about educating teenagers in democracy and democratic duties, even as we complain incessantly that teenagers are too irresponsible and disengaged. The issue of the voting age typifies this ambivalent and contradictory stance. We deplore the fact that only 44% of 18-29 year olds voted in the last general election. Yet many draw the conclusion that to lower the voting age would pile apathy on apathy. I draw the opposite lesson: too few young people vote, in part because democracy and education in democracy are not – as Aristotle would put it – “repeatedly done” at school and college as teenagers are maturing.

Democracy and civic responsibility need to be taught and learned in schools. We can’t carry on, as with sex education a generation ago, expecting them to be learned spontaneously or informally, where parents aren’t engaged, and then complain when this does not happen.

This is why the last government introduced citizenship as a subject in the school curriculum. It is why I strongly support school councils, in primary schools as well as secondary schools. It is why, in my own party, I am constantly urging university students to stand in local elections and become councillors. And it is why I now believe that the time has come to lower the voting age to 16, in national and local elections.

It is important not to see these things in isolation. Education and democracy need to go together, literally. Most 16 to 18 year olds are in school or college – so that’s where the polling stations should be too. Every school with a Sixth Form, and every further education and Sixth Form college, should have a polling station, and the young people should be registered to vote there – instead of the perversity that some schools are actually closed on polling day so that the adults can vote undisturbed.

If we did this, voting would become a semi-obligatory rite of passage, like taking GCSEs and A-levels; citizenship education in schools would have a stronger and more urgent focus; candidates and parties, in local as well as national elections, would regard school and college students as a key constituency; and mock elections would lead to real elections within the education system itself, in the same way that mock exams lead to real exams and work experience leads, hopefully, to work.

All of this can and should be done.

The full speech can be read on Lord Adonis’s blog.

The announcement made in the House of Commons on 7 February 2013 confirms this government is committed to Citizenship in every secondary school. The curriculum proposals are now subject to a full public consultation until 16 April 2013. Final versions of the curriculum are due in schools this autumn for first teaching in September 2014. Democratic Life is preparing a full consultation response which we will publish soon.

Key points

Citizenship will remain statutory with programmes of study that set out what must be taught at key stage 3 (for 11-14 year olds) and key stage 4 (for 14-16 year olds). The GCSE Citizenship Studies will continue to count in school performance tables.

However, we believe that further improvements to the draft programmes of study are necessary to ensure there is clarity about what must be taught and to set appropriate standards for the subject. Essential changes are needed, to:

• Include a clear requirement to teach about human rights
• Clarify active citizenship is not just volunteering but involves pupils taking part in genuine social and democratic action in their schools and communities
• Enhance the new requirement for financial education to include economic understanding and public finance
• Ensure key stage 3 is not solely focused on the UK but includes the European, international and global dimensions of the subject
• Improve the subject aims and show appropriate progression between key stages 3 and 4, especially in key aspects such as the law.

How to find the DFE consultation documents

The consultation documents are available from the DFE website using the links below:

National Curriculum Consultation document - 18 pages setting out the details of the consultation

National Curriculum Consultation framework document – 221 pages setting out the proposed general requirements and subject programmes of study for the secondary National Curriculum

Citizenship Programmes of Study at key stages 3 and 4 – 6 pages containing the proposed Citizenship curriculum.

We urge you to respond. To do so you will need to upload your comments using the DFE consultation response form. We are developing are a Democratic Life response and will share it soon.

Primary citizenship

In addition, we are very concerned that there are no plans to update the primary Citizenship curriculum. The current non-statutory curriculum framework is now more than ten years old. It bears little relation to the proposed secondary curriculum and this will cause confusion in schools and between phases of education.

Initial Teacher Education for Citizenship

We believe that the government now needs to demonstrate its commitment to high quality Citizenship by strengthening the teacher training available for the subject.

All children deserve great citizenship education and the best citizenship teaching!

We hope our supporters will continue to take action for stronger Citizenship in England.

Michael Gove

The announcement made in the House of Commons signals this government is committed to citizenship as a curriculum subject that every child, in every school must be taught.

Responding to a question from David Blunkett MP, Mr Gove said, ” I can absolutely and with pleasure confirm that citizenship will remain a programme of study at key stages 3 and 4. I look forward to working with him to ensure that this valuable subject is even better taught in more of our schools.”

This positive decision will help teachers build on over ten years of hard work work to establish this unique National Curriculum subject. Schools can now plan steps to continue to improve their citizenship provision so that more pupils benefit from the very best citizenship teaching.

The decision also reaffirms there is cross-party political support for citizenship education – something that Democratic Life has been working for over the past 3 years.

National Curriculum citizenship was established in 2002 and has been a statutory subject in secondary schools since this time. Citizenship is unique being the only subject that teaches knowledge and understanding about politics, government, the law and the economy and equips pupils to participate effectively in democracy and public life.

The curriculum review provides an opportunity to ensure there is a robust programme of study for citizenship that sets out clearly what every school must teach. The proposed new curriculum is subject to a full public consultation, with final versions due in schools this autumn for first teaching in September 2014. Democratic Life will be developing a response to this consultation and providing advice to supporters in the coming weeks.

We look forward to working with the DFE to continue to support the development of National Curriculum citizenship.

Many of our partner organisations and supporters have told us they are delighted with this announcement. The Association for Citizenship Teaching says:

“Citizenship education prepares young people to be able to play an active role in democratic life. As Citizenship teachers we are imparting the skills and knowledge our young people need in order to be able to participate in 
local, national and international political society.
Over the past ten years Citizenship education has become an established curriculum subject giving our young people an understanding of what it means to be an active citizen in a democratic society.”

The Citizenship Foundation says:

“We are very pleased that citizenship will stay on the National Curriculum, with a programme of study and with the Education Secretary’s express support. We are delighted that Michael Gove has turned around advice to drop the subject. Citizenship strengthens civic and civil society and is set to grow in strength and influence in the coming years.”

Amnesty International says:

“Amnesty warmly welcomes the news that Citizenship will be retained as a statutory subject on the National Curriculum in England. The subject has played a key role in ensuring pupils learn about their human rights. However, it is disappointing that human rights hardly feature in the required subject content in the new curriculum proposal. Good quality human rights education requires more than a passing mention of rights in the UK, it should develop knowledge, skills and values to understand and protect human rights in the UK and globally. In the UK’s increasingly diverse society, human rights provide a common language of mutual respect that has a vital role in drawing us together and building stronger communities and schools. It is our hope that as a result of the consultation period, references to human rights in the curriculum will be strengthened. The Government must take seriously its international obligations to provide opportunities for human rights education as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Notes:
About Citizenship
Citizenship was introduced in 2002 as a statutory National Curriculum foundation subject at key stages 3 and 4 following the recommendations of Bernard Crick’s Advisory group report ‘Teaching Citizenship and Democracy in schools’ (QCA, 1998)

Citizenship forms part of a non-statutory National Framework alongside PSHE education at key stages 1 and 2.

Citizenship Studies qualifications at GCSE and A level will continue to be used by many schools to recognize achievement of pupils at key stage 4 and beyond. To date more than half a million students have achieved a GCSE in Citizenship Studies. The GCSE qualifications are offered by AQA, Edexcel and OCR.

About Democratic Life
Democratic Life (www.democraticlife.org.uk) is a coalition of 40 organisations and 800 committed individuals who have come together to champion better Citizenship education. We believe citizenship – through teaching about politics, the law and the economy – is essential for preparing all our young people to contribute to our economy and participate responsibly in our shared democratic life. Democratic Life and its members are not aligned with any political party. Rather, our aim is to achieve a cross-party consensus on the important role citizenship education plays in ensuring our democracy’s health.

In his speech David Blunkett, who is President of the North of England Education Conference 2013 (twitter #NEEC2013), challenged the contradictions as he saw them within current education policy and reminded delegates Citizenship is a statutory National Curriculum subject that will continue to be inspected by Ofsted.

Blunkett said, ‘We are told that the Government does not wish to politicise education, but it has abolished the qualification, curriculum and development authority, and centralised decisions in the Secretary of State.

We’re told that we must have a creative, innovative nation to compete with the new emerging global economies. At the same time, we seek to set aside any emphasis on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), on Design and Technology (DT) or on thinking skills.

Oh, and yes we want the Big Society to avoid the riots of August 2011, to develop citizens of the future. But we seek to downgrade and eliminate Citizenship and Democracy from our school curriculum.

By the way, it still exists, it is there being taught (sometimes extremely well). It is still and, as I understand it from the Chief Inspector, will continue to be inspected. Head teachers and school governors should still be concerned with and demanding high quality Citizenship education.’

The former Secretary of State for Education was responsible for introducing Citizenship as a National Curriculum foundation subject which has been statutory in secondary schools at key stages 3 and 4 since 2002. However, academies and free schools are free from requirements to teach the National Curriculum. Many agree this has led to the status and leverage of the National Curriculum as being a force for raising standards and improving the quality of provision in schools to diminish.

However, government has decided to retain a National Curriculum for secondary schools and the Education Minister, Liz Truss MP is reported to have confirmed during her address to the NEEC 2013 that government proposals for the revised curriculum would be published for public consultation in the next few months.

Our supporting organisations have a range of events and resources to support learning about democracy and parliament and there is more on the Parliament Week website.

We hope this year even more pupils and teachers will use the opportunity of Parliament Week to get in touch with their MP, MEP or a member of the House of Lords and invite them into school to see citizenship education in action.

‘Digital Citizenship’ – Five Nations Network Conference
Digital Citizenship is the subject at this year’s Five Nations Network annual conference on 22-23 November 2012, supported by the Association for Citizenship Teaching and funded by the Gordon Cook Foundation. Participants will hear from guest speakers, Steve Beswick, Director of Education at Microsoft UK and Dr Shaku Banaji, Senior Lecturer at the London School of Economics on how technology can be harnessed in citizenship teaching and the effects of social media on young people’s political participation. Parliament’s Susan Vittery is running workshops on ‘Engaging Young People with Parliament in the virtual world’ using tools and games developed by the Parliamentary Education Service.

Hansard Society: Young People’s Question Time
Building on the success of last year, the Hansard Society is hosting a Young People’s Question Time at Portcullis House on 19 November 2012. Chaired by Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, politicians from across the political spectrum will engage with young people on the questions that matter to them.

Citizenship Foundation: Chance to be Chancellor
Chance to be Chancellor, is launched by the Citizenship Foundation on Friday 23 November 2012 and runs until February 2013, provides the opportunity for 14-18 year olds to share their opinions on the UK’s Budget. Using an interactive online tool, participants choose and create their own policies and create a short video expressing their reasons for their policy choices.

In March, before the Chancellor’s Budget, the results are launched as the ‘Youth Budget’ which is presented to the Treasury, giving young people without a vote, a voice on the economy and the economic priorities they believe should be set.

Chance to be Chancellor is part of Paying for It, an economic awareness programme run by the Citizenship Foundation in partnership with Aviva. Paying for It also offers resources and training for teachers to help them increase young people’s awareness of the effect of the economy on society, and the big decisions of our time.

Amnesty International: The Power of Our Voices
‘The Power of Our Voices’ is a multimedia resource from Amnesty International that promotes young people’s active engagement in democracy, by exploring the power of Protest Songs to promote human rights and social change. Students explore case studies from around the world, from the US Civil Rights movement, to Egypt’s Tahrir Square, and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, where songs have helped people organise for enfranchisement and human rights. Designed for secondary Citizenship, English, RE and Music, the resource includes an assembly and three lessons. In the final lesson students are given guidance from rap-poet Kate Tempest, in how to create their own protest lyrics. Students are invited to submit their work to Amnesty’s Protest Song Competition.

I Talk Out Loud is a film that tells the story of the extra-curricular Amnesty Youth Group at Eastlea School and their campaign to end stoning in Iran. It’s a great example of how ordinary young people can engage in democracy through campaigning and make a real difference in the world.

Why not show the DVD during Parliament Week and inspire your students to get campaigning for human rights?