Yahoo Finance Schools could do more 'rigorous' job of teaching about Britain’s colonial past, minister admits
Schools could do a more "rigorous" job of teaching children about Britain’s colonial past, a Government minister has admitted.
Giving evidence to parliamentary select committees about black history and cultural diversity in the curriculum, Nick Gibb, the Minister of State for School Standards, suggested that improvements could be made.
Asked whether the Department for Education (DfE) is doing enough to ensure that slavery and colonialism is taught well enough in schools, Mr Gibb responded by saying that “it is in the national curriculum”. However, he also said that there is scope to make sure the teaching is “more rigorous”.
He told the virtual hearing: “In Key Stage Three (KS3) there are requirements to teach about ideas of political power, industry and Empire. [...] I think sometimes in the past, the quality of what is taught is sometimes not given the right attention and that is now [not] happening.”
He was also asked whether if teachers failed to teach the subjects as well as they should be, the DfE should make them statutory, and responded that “the national curriculum is statutory”.
However, he added: “There is a case for looking at the KS3 curriculum and making sure it's as rigorous as it can be.”
KS3 is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Years seven, eight and nine when pupils are aged between 11 and 14.
The hearing, which was jointly chaired by the Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee, came after hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on the issues of Black history and cultural diversity in the national curriculum.
