100 signatures reached
To: Nicky Morgan (Education Minister)
Make Politics a Compulsory Part of Education.
Politics needs to be taught to everyone; not the selected few. With bias newspapers being the only places some people can source information on who or what they should vote for, people are very rarely going to be able to create their own opinion on politicians, leaders and parties. This is a recipe to ensure that those at the top, stay at the top.
Why is this important?
This campaign is very basic: teach children about politics.
Politics is arguably one of the most important things in this modern society, yet a lot of people don't seem to have a real understanding of politics and how our system works. The media is dominated by the likes of big boss Rupert Murdoch, making most of the places people look to for information incredibly, biased with no other real, credible alternative available. If the only place you can muster up an opinion on politics is from places that class all people on benefits as "scroungers" and ridicule politicians on the way they eat a sandwich - can you really create a valid opinion on politics?
At the minute, Citizenship is compulsory in state schools. This is a subject not entirely based on politics, meaning the information gained in some places can be limited. Also, as this is only made compulsory in state schools, it means that 56% of schools do not have to teach Citizenship. And with the amount of schools converting into academies, it will only be a matter of time before this is number is increased. Teaching Citizenship to less than half of the teenagers in the UK is not enough. Everyone needs to have a strong understanding of how our government works and basic ideas of each political party in order to make an informed decision on who to vote for. Do you really want people voting blindly?
What I’m proposing is that the basics of politics i.e. types of government, different voting systems, differences in political parties and a history of what those parties have done in government be taught to children. Whether that be making a completely separate subject for politics which teenagers have to learn from year seven to year nine or having one lesson of politics a week for a year is irrelevant - all I’m after is an opportunity for young people to learn about politics.
By having politics a compulsory part of education, it can have so many benefits. Obviously, with more people aware of party policies, it's likely more people would vote, meaning a fairer representation in parliament of what everyone wants and people will not be following ill-informed information from bias newspapers. On top of this, if more young people are exposed to politics, it can increase an interest in politics for young people which could potentially lead to working class people developing careers in politics, meaning people would be better represented in parliament.
Politics is vital to all of our lives. We need to be more aware of what we're voting for and have access to unbiased information about politics.
