Addressing political literacy in schools

“To protect our democracy and promote British values, we have to recognise the crucial role education plays in shaping a generation, and we must prioritise political literacy education.”

The Brexit referendum marked a watershed moment in Britain in which fringe nationalism moved into the mainstream. The rise of far-right extremist groups such as the English Defence League (EDL) indicate a worrying direction for UK politics. 

In August, the Guardian revealed a rise in the number of children being radicalised by far-right groups, with 13 per cent of terrorism arrests in the last year were children under the age of 18, compared with five per cent the year before. Additionally young people under the age of 24 accounted for nearly 60 per cent of extreme right-wing terror arrests, representing a rapid rise. 

This coupled with recent tragic events, such as the Liverpool Women’s Hospital terrorist attack and the murders of MPs David Amess and Jo Cox clearly show that young people are entering a political climate of intolerance and violence. In order to protect our democracy and promote British values, we must recognise the crucial role education plays in shaping a generation, and we have to prioritise political literacy education.

Political literacy bears the responsibility of instilling and developing democratic attitudes amongst young people. It is not just understanding how our democratic system functions, it also encompasses the skills needed to understand and engage with one’s own political system. In a democracy, political literacy among citizens is crucial to ensure a thriving culture of debate, tolerance and accountability. If we do not teach young people to make their voices heard while respecting each other's differences in opinions, then we are breeding a climate in which fringe views can thrive.

With the rise of the internet and the spread of misinformation means that young people are more vulnerable to extremism. A key part of this problem is that we are not equipping young people with the critical thinking skills needed to both challenge extremist views and be a participative member of our democracy.

Since 2015, Shout Out UK has repeatedly stressed the importance of political education in fostering a healthy democracy and providing young people with the skills to be critical thinkers and tolerant people. Yet the provisions within schools continue to be limited.

In England the only subject that tackles political literacy education is Citizenship Studies, which is not a compulsory choice for schools, meaning many schools omit teaching it, even as an extra-curricular subject. As part of our work at Shout Out UK, we established the All Party Parliamentary Group on Political Literacy (APPG) that brings parliamentarians and academics together to create a roadmap to embed political literacy education effectively.

The APPG recently embarked on some research called ‘The Missing Link’ in collaboration with the Speaking Citizens Project through the Knowledge Exchange funding from the University of Sussex. ‘The Missing Link’ is the largest data set we have on political literacy

provisions in schools since 2010. The research involved 3,000 plus teachers in almost 2,000 schools, providing us with a true representation of the existing provision of political literacy education.

The study found that ‘only 29 per cent of schools offer weekly lessons related to citizenship education; and 26 per cent of secondary schools offer no provision at all’. These findings reinforce previous reports by Ofsted that concluded citizenship education was ‘below satisfactory or inadequate’. Citizenship is usually taught in UK schools by a teacher not trained in the field, with research revealing that ‘less than 1% feel prepared to teach political literacy education’, highlighting the fact the subject is not prioritised within our Education system further.

The consequences of the absence of a compulsory political literacy education in British secondary schools has been stressed both by political and civic actors; yet so far action has been limited. We need to recognise that education is a powerful tool that can tackle extremism and promote democracy.

It is incumbent on us to rise to the challenge and make sure that young people are equipped with the critical thinking skills needed to challenge extremist views, protect themselves from misinformation and be active members of the democratic process. Not providing those tools weakens our democracy. This process starts in the classroom. It starts with embedding comprehensive political literacy education in schools across the UK.

By Matteo Bergamini is founder and chief executive of Shout Out UK