Political education

[ukyp]

Campaign proposal

To incorporate political education into the secondary education curriculum

Purpose of campaign

‘Value the Vote’ recognises that there is huge voter apathy, disengagement and lack of understanding for the political spheres. Yet at the same time, we realise that we are one of the most democratic countries of the world. We believe that much of this ‘apathy’ and lack of trust in political representatives is based considerably on lack of understanding of how Government works, who the political parties are, what they stand for and even going as simple as saying, how to vote in the ballots boxes.

‘Value the Vote’ aims to teach young people everything from the importance of their vote, how they can get involved in the democratic process, to how Government passes legislation and what that legislation means to them! It aims ultimately to make political engagement a way of life and to break down barriers to the political field caused by lack of understanding.

Read more about this campaign

Discuss

· What do you think of this campaign idea?
· Is this issue important to you?
· Is the campaign realistic and achievable?
· What challenges would this campaign face?
· How could we make this campaign successful?

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[Red-Fred]

Personally I believe that voter apathy and low turnout figures are a result of two things. Firstly the government not listening to the views of the public, as was shown by the Iraq war etc, and secondly the fact that the three main parties seem to be offering mroe and more of the same thing nowadays.

[LordAnubis]

I think that it's a good idea, but would it be as a full lesson, or just as like a citizenship session? A full lesson may be a little extensive, as people may push away from something they have no interest in. But then there's a problem of a PSRE/Citizenship course not being in depth enough.

Either way, I think an attend to break down some of the ignorance is a step in the right direction.

[samhale]

I was part of this group at the WM Residential- and it wasn't amazingly clear than either.
I think that it wants to make a higher amount of Political education being integrated into citizenship, possibly at the expense of other parts of the course, or maybe other lessons.

I don't do citizenship, so I have little idea what is actually taught in the first place.

[Emma Nelson]

It wasn't clear at all when it was discussed at the WM residential, I think the main aim is to eventually get Politics as a seperate lesson on the curriculum, and to send teachers on a course?! To begin with though the aim was to make sure that politics was taught in citizenship and to improve the way it is being taught currently. Though even though i became a member of this campaign i don't see it going anywhere unless people start to think critically about this which they weren't at the residential. Teachers won't want to go on a course for an extra workload, and most schools will simply turn around and say that it is already on the curriculum, sorry guys i don't see this one going national.

[samhale]

I think you're probably right.

We were thinking about it being more of an external thing, people coming in and talking about it.
At my school we have citizenship days, instead of having citizenship/pastoral/tutorial.

[Vicky]

The midlands residential was pretty good for highlighting the enthusiasm people had for this campaign - I don't think we should be too worried about the few criticisms people had - for example I totally sympathise with the comment made earlier that teachers possibly feeling they already have training days to attend and don't want to attend more, but sometimes we have to put up with the bad things to bring about the good. And in this case I think the good this will bring will FAR outweigh the bad.

I think the only threat to this campaign is that people had SOO many good ideas- and we need to make sure everyone's views are taken on board.

[Red-Fred]

I also think it would be very difficult to ensure that the teaching remained unbiased. Obviously teachers have views and it would be impossible to stop them coming across at all, however it would be important that at least some degree of balance and impartiality was maintained.

[magicman92]

Originally Posted by Red-Fred

I also think it would be very difficult to ensure that the teaching remained unbiased. Obviously teachers have views and it would be impossible to stop them coming across at all, however it would be important that at least some degree of balance and impartiality was maintained.

Isn't that a sign of a good teacher? Someone who can seperate their point of view from the necessary teaching.

Anyway! It's important, but would this be allowed to stand allow without a qualification?

[Marcus89]

In theory, sounds brilliant.

In practice, I forsee failure.