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"It's laughable to put talking about alternatives to capitalism on par with racism."

Youth organisations and democracy activists have hit out at new teaching advice for schools in England, which critics say risks censoring left-wing perspectives.

A coalition of organisations and activists has written to the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, to challenge new guidance for Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) released last week.

The DfEsPlan your relationships, sex and health curriculumdocument urges schools against using resources produced by organisations that take extreme political stances. Examples cited by the Department for Education include a publicly stated desire to abolish or overthrow democracy, capitalism, or to end free and fair elections, SchoolsWeek reported.

Now a letter coordinated by Shout Out UK, an educational platform and social enterprise which works with young people, warns that the new guidance risks creating a culture of censorship.

The 31 signatories include the Association for Citizenship Teaching, the Centre for Education and Youth, Young Citizens, as well as progressive campaigners including LGBT+ campaigner Peter Tatchell and Compass director Neal Lawson.

It is not clear how many schools ever draw on explicitly anti-capitalist resources in the RSE teaching.

The Socialist Educational Association said it was strange that a document which purports to be about guidance in implementing RSE suddenly lurches off into diktats about the dangers of exposing children to material promoting extreme political positions, adding: What is the government trying to achieve? The guidance has been seen as a new plank of the governments culture war against cancel culture, no-platforming, and trans issues.

In response to a question from Left Foot Forward, Keir Starmers spokesman said: Gavin Williamson should stop seeking cheap headlines and start sorting out the crises he has overseen in his department.

Matteo Bergamini, CEO and Founder of Shout Out UK, told LFF: I am proud to be leading a coalition of organisations in the political education and democracy promotion sectors in response to the latest RSE guidelines. Its laughable to put talking about alternatives to capitalism on par with racism. Learning about alternatives enhances positive debate and democracy. Censorship solves nothing.

Letter in full

Dear Mr Williamson,

We write this joint open letter as a coalition of organisations in the political education and democracy promotion sectors to raise our concerns about the Departments guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSE) issued on Thursday 24th September 2020.

We acknowledge that this guidance has been issued to schools in the context of RSE, not the PSHE umbrella it sits within, but we are nonetheless concerned about the precedent this may set for other aspects of the curriculum, and the impact it may have on teachers confidence to cover political topics.

The guidance states that: Schools should not under any circumstances use resources produced by organisations that take extreme political stances on matters, and provides a non-exhaustive list of examples. Our concerns revolve around this point in particular.

As advocates for widening access to education about political issues, we implore the government to consider that this regulation has the potential to censor the already minimal discussion of politics in schools.The guidelines serve to deny students the opportunity to engage with material from extreme sources in a classroom environment, precluding informed debate and discouraging critical thinking.Political education continues to be either inadequate or completely absent for most students in the UK; we want to ensure that any window of opportunity to discuss politics is as wide as possible.

With respect to this guidance, which is non-statutory implementation guidance, we seek urgent clarification on the following points:

Students must be armed with the Political and Media Literacy skills to ensure that they can understand and discuss political issues with a critical mindset. Extreme political organisations will exist whether or not schools are allowed to discuss them in the classroom, but this guidance deprives students of the chance to tackle them head-on. Politics necessitates dialogue and the continual contestation of ideas. Schools should be a safe place for this to happen without fear of recrimination or censorship.

Signed By

The views expressed in this letter represent those of the signatories and not necessarily their organisations or employers.

Josiah Mortimeris co-editor of Left Foot Forward.

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Education figures hit out 'censorship' of anti-capitalism in new teaching guidance - Left Foot Forward