Majority of Teachers Feel Curriculum Not Equipped For Voting At 16, Poll Shows
Commons Leader Lucy Powell said she hoped MPs would have their say in the next parliamentary session
3 min read
A large majority of teachers believe that the curriculum in its current form fails to provide young people with sufficient political education to vote in elections, a poll shared with PoliticsHome shows.
The findings come as the government is expected to publish the interim findings from its curriculum and assessment review in the coming weeks. PoliticsHome understands that political knowledge falls within the scope of the review.
Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell told MPs earlier this month that the law to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16 could be tabled within months.
Labour pledged to lower the voting age in all elections to 16 in its general election manifesto last year to "increase the engagement of young people in our vibrant democracy".
But new polling, carried out by Teacher Tapp on 13 March and shared with PoliticsHome, showed that 84 per cent of state school teachers surveyed did not believe the national curriculum provides enough political education to prepare students for voting in elections.
The concerns over the curriculum were reflected in both state and private schools, according to the survey of nearly 6,000 teachers.
Some 82 per cent of respondents who taught in private schools said they disagreed that the curriculum currently provides enough political education. Unlike state schools, however, private schools are not required to follow the curriculum.
The findings are likely to add to concerns over whether teachers will be equipped to deal with the repercussions of lowering the voting age.
Grainne Hallahan, head of community at Teacher Tapp, told PoliticsHome: “The national curriculum already includes statutory guidance on the electoral process, but written in 2013 it was not designed to prepare young people to vote from age 16.
"If this were to change, it’s clear that this guidance would need to be rewritten, and it’s possible that this subject will feel more relevant to young people if voting starts at 16, rather than 18.”
PoliticsHome has contacted the Department for Education for comment.
The curriculum review, led by education expert Professor Becky Francis, last year gathered evidence on how the curriculum can be updated to improve education for 5-19 year olds. Intermin findings are expected to be published in the coming weeks.
Sam Carling, Labour MP for North West Cambridgeshire, said the curriculum review must look at helping young people think critically in response to misinformation and disinformation spread by popular social media apps such as TikTok.
"For me, there are fundamental skills deficits and we're not teaching young people to think critically," Carling said.
"If people can be trained to think more critically from a younger age and really question things they're seeing online, that helps a lot. We're not going anywhere near as far enough as I would argue we should be on that."
The chair of the foreign affairs select committee Emily Thornberry recently told PoliticsHome that the UK could not be complacent about Russian attempts to influence its elections.
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