Civic Education In England

In 2002, Citizenship was introduced as a statutory subject in the English National Curriculum,
following the recommendations of the Crick Report in 1998. It is taught as part of the school
curriculum to all pupils aged 1116 years old in maintained schools in England.

The National Curriculum for citizenship in England contributes to the overall aims of the national
curriculum, that children should develop as successful learners, confident individuals and
responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. The Citizenship curriculum is based
on key concepts (democracy, justice, rights and responsibilities, identities and diversity) that children
need to understand and key processes and skills (critical thinking and enquiry, advocacy and
representation, taking informed and responsible action) they need to develop. The National
Curriculum for citizenship sets out teaching requirements that address a wide range of content
including politics, parliament and government, the operation of the legal system, how the economy
functions, the role of the media, human rights, Europe and international relations. Teachers use
topical political and social issues to bring citizenship content to life and to help pupils develop key
citizenship skills of research, discussion and debate, as well as to represent the views of others, think
critically, evaluate and reflect. The Citizenship curriculum aims to develop student's ability to
participate in communities and wider society as informed, critical and responsible citizens. The
purpose of "active citizenship" is to teach students to work together and take practical action, using
their Citizenship knowledge and understanding to contribute to a better society. For example, after
learning about human rights, diversity and inequality, students might decide to set up a project to
address racism in their school or local community. Other examples of active Citizenship projects
include starting recycling programmes, setting up student action groups to address bullying or
promote fair trade or campaigning to lower the voting age to 16.

A GCSE in "Citizenship Studies" is available for students in key stage 4. The three main awarding
bodies in England (AQA, OCR and Edexcel) offer this qualification as a full and a short course. The
qualification includes a controlled assessment based on an active citizenship project they have taken
part in. There is also an A level in Citizenship Studies which is available through AQA. This
qualification is valued by leading Universities including the University of Cambridge. More than
500,000 young people have now attained qualifications in Citizenship Studies since 2002.

A review by Sir Jim Rose of the primary national curriculum during 2009, was expected to lead the
introduction of citizenship as a statutory part of the primary education during 2010. However, the
Education Bill fell at its last hurdle in parliament so the subject remains non-statutory in primary
schools. Most primary schools already teach citizenship through their curriculum. Materials to
support the teaching of citizenship in primary and secondary schools and in post 16 settings were
published by QCA (now the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency).

In October 2005, the House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee began an inquiry
into Citizenship Education, which reported in March 2007. They took written and oral evidence from
a wide range of individuals including a range of Headteachers and Sir Bernard Crick, and
organisations including the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority, the Learning and Skills Network, Ofsted, the Association of Citizenship
Teachers (ACT), the Citizenship Foundation and the Hansard Society.

The Committee concluded that "It is too early to say with any degree of confidence whether
citizenship education is producing the wide range of impacts originally hoped for. Initial evidence
from small-scale studies and the experience of individual institutions is promising but on its own not
enough...The imperative now is to ensure that patchiness [in the provision of citizenship teaching] is
not allowed to remain, that high quality provision becomes the norm, and that progress is
accelerated. This will require action from those on the ground, but also needs strong support from
the DfES and Ministers."