ENGLAND’s biggest teaching union has urged its members to educate children on white privilege and to "decolonise their classrooms", something which is being criticised heavily by Tory MPs and school heads.
Claiming that education offered in UK schools lacks “honesty and transparency” because of the “silence around British imperialism and racism”, National Education Union (NEU) has told its 450, 000 members that there is an urgent need to decolonise the education system especially since the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Suggesting “strategies for decolonising education in nurseries, schools and colleges”, the NEU report details a list of actions that should be taken by its members which includes specialists who can “train teachers and schools on whiteness, anti-racism, creating tools for critical self-reflection and understanding the system”.
The NEU also wants schools to “make white privilege and colonialism visible” in school curriculum, the report said, adding that schools should “move beyond diversification of literature to look at critiquing the ideas and knowledge we perpetuate".
Calling the report’s findings as “uncomfortable truth”, the NEU joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said that in wider society recognition of the history, contributions and achievements of Black people has been greatly overlooked, if not totally ignored.
“Decolonising the curriculum is a positive re-examination of who has written history and which ideas have shaped how we think - it includes talking about women, too,” Bousted said.
Calling on Department for Education for not having strategies in place to have more Black teachers and school leaders, Bousted said that “decolonising can lead us to a more empathetic and fairer society” but it's also about “high-quality teaching and more time for critical thinking skills in school”.
Meanwhile, NEU’s suggestions in the report are being lambasted by Tory MPs, saying that the content of the report is "divisive" and the product of a "warped view of the past".
“This is sinister. To think that people with such a warped view of the past, present and future should be instructing our children is chilling,” Sir John Hayes, chair of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, told The Telegraph. “The truth is Britain has made disproportionately noble contributions to the history of the world.”
Former headteacher Christopher McGovern insisted it was time for educational institutions to "forget wokeism" and focus on teaching pupils. Speaking at GB News, he said that “we should emphasise what we have achieved rather than going along this pathway of self-flagellation, whipping ourselves and telling ourselves how bad we are".
Apsana Begum
