SCHOOLS IN UK ASKED TO FOCUS ON SENSITIVE ISSUES AND AVOID BIASED TEACHING

Fri 18 February 2022:

Under the new guidance, UK schools are being asked to teach sensitive issues in a non-biased way. The aim is to help teachers cover complex topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As per Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, no subject should be off-limits.

A warning has also been given against teachers expressing their personal views.

It comes after a row when children at a Nottingham primary school wrote a letter criticising the prime minister.

The political impartiality in schools guidance, which has been published by the Department for Education has urged schools to think carefully while planning lessons and choosing class materials.

This means that where teachers present controversial political views in a lesson, they must offer a balanced overview of opposing views.

Schools have also been asked to try to resolve concerns raised by parents who feel that their children have been exposed to an ‘uncontested political view.’

Ben Miskell, a citizenship and politics teacher, in a report by BBC said, “Teachers I come into contact with across the country in my role as an ambassador for the Association for Citizenship Teaching (Act) are all doing the same thing. It is rare for impartiality not to be seen, and where it is this is normally down to lack of training.”

Promoting partisan political views in class is unlawful under the 1996 education act. This implies that if teachers present controversial political views in a lesson, they must also offer a balanced overview.

Issues like climate change, racial injustices past and present, and food poverty are in the media streams of teenagers, not least through their heroes and influencers.

National Education Union joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted says there is already sufficient guidance under the Education Act.

The new guidance adds “new layers of mystification and complexity” and could increase uncertainty and put schools off engaging with political issues, she says.

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