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History and Geography were dropped as core subjects in Britain. Only 40% now study it at GCSE (junior cycle).
It’s a bit of a leap from there to #Brexit but it must be part of the background picture.
It’s a bit of a leap from there to #Brexit but it must be part of the background picture.
History is compulsory in Britain only up until age 14. The most recent figure I can find from 2009 suggests only 4% sat a History GCSE exam. Making it less popular than Design & Technology.
It is even less popular at A Level. More students sat the Psychology paper than History.
The even bigger problem though is “this sceptered isle” approach to History. It’s all Agincourt, Cromwell and Spitfires.
The even bigger problem though is “this sceptered isle” approach to History. It’s all Agincourt, Cromwell and Spitfires.
80% of A Level students in 2006 studied the History of the Third Reich.
Important to never forget etc but focusing on 12 years of 20th Century History to the exclusion of Britain’s involvement in India or Ireland can’t be good.
Important to never forget etc but focusing on 12 years of 20th Century History to the exclusion of Britain’s involvement in India or Ireland can’t be good.
And it is probably because of the amount of teaching time it would take to present a more rounded view of Britain’s imperial and colonial history that schools are running away from it.
So much so that there’s a two tier system clearly visible. 70% of pupils in state schools don’t do any history versus 50% in independent schools. History is being privatised.
“We are, in effect, creating two nations of young Britons: those, on the one hand, who grow up with a sense of our shared memory as a living, urgently present body of knowledge, something that informs their own lives and shapes their sense of community ...”
”... and those on the other hand who have been encouraged to treat it as little more than ornamental polishing for the elite.”
~ Simon Schama
~ Simon Schama
These “reforms” of the curriculum were begun by Margaret Thatcher’s Education Secretary, Keith Joseph. But continued enthusiastically by both Labour and Tory governments.
Comparatively teachers in Irish schools have a much easier job presenting pupils with a balanced and comprehensive view of the history of this island than UK teachers do
Running away from that challenge will (when the history books of the last thirty years are written) prove to have been of huge significance for Britain.
Seeing this in our nearest neighbour - what will be said of us thirty years from now?
Seeing this in our nearest neighbour - what will be said of us thirty years from now?
