Can schools fix ‘Broken Britain’?

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2024 on Saturday 19 October at Church House, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

Labour’s initial response to the summer riots was police-led. It used 6,000 specialist police and swift trials, while also condemning the rioters and denying that they had any legitimate concerns. It has also promised a harsh clampdown on online disinformation, with some already imprisoned for social-media posts. Now schools are being charged with sorting out such contentious issues, in part at least because seemingly some of those rioting were themselves school-age.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said she is launching a review of the curriculum in primary and secondary schools to ‘embed critical skills in lessons to arm our children against the disinformation, fake news and putrid conspiracy theories awash on social media’ and children will be taught how to spot extremist content. However, without any clear guidelines about what is considered extremist, who will determine what to spot? How will refocusing the curriculum (again) deal with wildly differing opinions far beyond the classroom on what constitutes fake news and conspiracies?

More broadly, there is also attention being paid to underlining questions of what has fractured society so badly. How can we tackle a lack of community cohesion, and the undeniable feelings of alienation felt by many citizens? Inevitably, yet again, it’s argued that teachers have an important role to play in healing our social wounds, post-riots.  The Chartered College of Teaching has pointed out that schools shouldn’t be expected to ‘solve all the problems of society’. But the general secretary of the National Education Union, Daniel Kebede, urged the government to use its National Curriculum review to ‘investigate how to build an anti-racist curriculum that boosts engagement, self-esteem and a sense of belonging for every child’ insisting that ‘divisive, hateful language and negative, racist stereotypes have a real and immediate impact on classrooms and on the wellbeing of students and educators’.

But haven’t we been here before, charging education with creating a sense of belonging? Since 2014, all teachers in English schools have been required by law to ‘actively promote’ the shared British values of democracy, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs, as well as the rule of law and individual liberty. They are also required to report any pupil that they judge to be at risk of becoming a political extremist. As is now patently clear, these strategies have not had the outcomes policymakers hoped for.

What’s more, in today’s febrile climate, doesn’t this approach risk dragging schools into a one-sided explanation for the recent civil unrest? Will pupils who express concern over contentious issues such as mass migration, identity politics’ failings, two-tier policing and other contested viewpoints be accused of extremism? Might an activist approach encourage classroom interactions to ape the very polarised divisions it seeks to counter? Is there a danger that in assuming such a directly political role, teachers risk becoming indoctrinators? Can such an approach succeed, or is it doomed to fail?

SPEAKERS
Pamela Dow
chief operating officer, Civic Future

Dr Rakib Ehsan
author, Beyond Grievance: what the Left gets wrong about ethnic minorities

Michael Merrick
director of schools, Diocese of Lancaster; former teacher; education and social commentator

Ian Mitchell
English literature and psychology teacher; writer, Teachwire; member, AoI Education Forum

CHAIR
Toby Marshall
film studies teacher; member, AoI Education Forum