Democratic education will be introduced first for those aged over 14 to prepare for votes at 16, with the ultimate aim of starting lessons at age 11. Materials are being prepared for schools to support impartial citizenship education and to help pupils take advantage of the vote at 16 and 17. Teachers are expected to avoid imposing personal political views in the classroom and to make clear when views are personal. Guidance and high-quality materials will be provided to enable debates on engaging political issues alongside instruction on how the system works. Polling shows many teachers and 16-17-year-olds feel unprepared.
Schools will need to give democracy lessons to children from the age of 11 and ask teachers to leave their politics at the classroom door to help prepare for votes at 16, the head of the UK elections watchdog has said. Vijay Rangarajan, the chief executive of the Electoral Commission, said democratic education would be rolled out at first to those aged over 14 in preparation for votes at 16 at the next election.
And making clear, when they have got personal views, it's just personal views. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, has complained he sees the education system as being full of leftwing prejudice and anti-Reform bias. Rangarajan said teachers will need really good materials and some guidance on how you can teach this stuff well with debates about engaging political issues, as well as the mechanics of how the system works.
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