If we want a new generation of leaders, we need to teach kids politics at school
The list of things wrong with our democracy is by now, pretty familiar. An antiquated (albeit unwritten) constitution, distrust in politicians, political polarisation, populism – all these are legitimate concerns but we rarely hear about an even more fundamental problem: the dire state of political education.
We need to start treating political education like maths or English, like a basic, essential knowledge bank that you can draw on as you go through life. We need to stop assuming that an understanding of our institutions is a natural process that will simply develop through spirited debate and formative life experiences.
Debates and experiences have never told me in black and white how pressure groups work, how MPs are selected, or the foundational ideology underpinning our major political parties. Politics is not a skill or an interest – it is a substantive, information dense subject.
The need for a rounded understanding of institutions and ideologies feels more acute than ever in a world where social media plays such a distinct role in political engagement. The dominant form of media consumption for young people is almost always sledged as an echo chamber which enhances confirmation bias – an explicitly anti democratic characteristic.
If we are serious about fostering the next generation of policymakers, political education should be considered another fundamental puzzle piece in a modern, tech driven democracy. Aside from the material benefits, there is piles of evidence showing what it does for positive civic engagement. Research from the House of Commons recently demonstrated that young people – 18 to 25 year olds – were the least likely to be disengaged out of all the adult age groups. But there is a gap between this participatory impulse and electoral turnout: less than half – 47 per cent – turned out to vote at the last election.
And currently less than a third – 29 per cent – of schools are offering weekly lessons explicitly dedicated to politics or citizenship education. All the while, the demand from students is clearly there: there has been increased demand to study A Level Government and Politics following a tumultuous few years in national and global politics. In 2018, there was a 10 per cent increase according to the Joint Council for Qualifications.
It is particularly remarkable that political literacy is absent from discussions about elitism in politics. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the absence of formal political education has a disproportionate impact on deprived communities over affluent ones. 75 per cent of parents that earn £70,000 or more would feel confident talking about social and political issues with their children. Only 33 per cent of parents earning under £10,000 feel the same.
Indeed, 79 per cent of the AB social class consider themselves to have a knowledge of politics, while only 32 and 29 per cent in the C2 and DE class respectively, according to the Hansard Society.
A common concern is that parents do want their children to learn politics but are concerned about bias. I have always found this a peculiar concern. Textbook “government and politics” is a remarkably specific course and it is not a debating society. Having stayed up until 2am the night before my final politics exam, I can testify the information needed to succeed in exams was exacting – the definition of bicameralism is still burned into the back of my eyelids. Much to my dismay as an opinionated 17 year old, it did not reward mine, or my teacher’s, personal political opinion.
After school, if people manage to traverse politics, it is through the lens of parents, academia, work or life experiences, newspapers with a specific editorial bias, social media algorithms or (such is the modern world) toxic political campaigns. If parents don’t concede that political education is completely neutral, they should at least concede that it is the most politically neutral option, comparatively.