Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools

confident in finding new forms of involvement and action among themselves.
There are worrying levels of apathy, ignorance and cynicism about public
life. These, unless tackled at every level, could well diminish the hoped-for
benefits both of constitutional reform and of the changing nature of the
welfare state. To quote from a speech by the Lord Chancellor earlier this
year (on which we end this report): ‘We should not, must not, dare not, be
complacent about the health and future of British democracy. Unless we
become a nation of engaged citizens, our democracy is not secure.’
1.6 Citizenship education is an unfulfilled expectation in a national agenda
established by the previous Government in Clause 2 of the first paragraph of
the 1988 Education Reform Act. That required a ‘balanced and broadly
based curriculum’ which ‘promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and
physical development of pupils’ and also ‘prepares such pupils for the
opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life’. Citizenship
education in a parliamentary democracy is also part of preparation for adult
life, just as the activity of acting as a citizen, not just as a subject, is part of
adult life. Following the 1997 White Paper, Excellence in Schools, we were
set the task of advising how to fulfil this expectation.
1.7 Citizenship education must be education for citizenship. It is not an end in
itself, even if it will involve learning a body of knowledge, as well as the
development of skills and values. Such knowledge is as interesting, as
intellectually demanding and as capable as any other subject of being taught
and assessed at any level. The study of politics and civil life, concerned with
both institutions and ideas, began with Aristotle, has continued ever since,
and flourishes today in our universities.
1.8 In section 2 of this report we discuss What we mean by Citizenship – that in
essence it has three strands: social and moral responsibility, community
involvement and political literacy. A poignant comment by an OFSTED
inspector about a school was drawn to our attention: ‘There are few
opportunities for pupils to develop an understanding of citizenship, mostly
because there is no agreed view of what this entails.’. This is by no means an
isolated case.
1.9 However, two words of caution are needed:
(a) Parents and the public generally may be worried about the possibility of
bias and indoctrination in teaching about citizenship. We must recognise that
teaching about citizenship necessarily involves discussing controversial issues.
After all, open and informed debate is vital for a healthy democracy. This is
not confined to citizenship however: controversial issues arise in other areas
like History, Geography, English, Personal, Social and Health Education
(PSHE) or Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC).
Teachers are aware of the potential problems and are professionally trained
to seek for balance, fairness and objectivity. Furthermore, safeguards in
education law exist to guard against biased and unbalanced teaching or
indoctrination. Our report contains guidance on the discussion of
controversial issues which we have drawn up (see section 10) consulting fully
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