The Crick report (1998) said citizenship was so vital that schools should have a statutory duty to make it part of the “entitlement of all pupils”.
Thus it became compulsory in state schools in 2002.
It is interesting that many prominent members of society have been educated in the private sector, where there is no such stipulation. Yet private schools continue to prepare children (selected largely on their parents’
ability to pay) for positions of power through “leadership courses”.
Let us hope that in the next few decades the state-educated pupils participating in the programme will be able to embrace fully the egalitarian principles upon which the very notion of citizenship is founded, and successfully take part in public life at the highest levels.
Dr Fiona Kisby, Stevenage, Hertfordshire
