News

Citizenship is not just volunteering

The fight to keep citizenship in the reformed national curriculum has been won, but campaigners are disappointed with the draft programmes of study, which promote volunteering while failing to mention human rights. Emma Lee-Potter reports.

The news that citizenship is to remain as a statutory subject in the secondary national curriculum has been greeted with sighs of relief by heads, teachers, students and campaigners.

Education secretary Michael Gove rejected the curriculum review expert panel’s advice to downgrade citizenship and announced last month (February 7) that it will continue to be taught at key stages 3 and 4.

The proposed new citizenship curriculum is subject to a full public consultation until April 16, with final versions due in schools this autumn for first teaching from September 2014.

But despite their delight, campaigners believe improvements to the draft citizenship curriculum are needed – to ensure that there is clarity about what must be taught and that appropriate standards for the subject are set.

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