Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Government urged to improve teaching of ‘British values’ in schools

18 Oct 2024 4 minute read
Picture by Reinhold Möller (CC BY-SA 4.0).

British values should continue to be taught in schools or the UK will “regret it later”, a former education secretary has said.

Labour peer Lord Blunkett said the summer riots and distortion on social media showed the need to “reinforce the importance” of the values which “do hold us together”, adding more teachers should be trained.

His remarks came as he supported the Education (Values of British Citizenship) Bill, tabled by independent crossbench peer Lord Harries of Pentregarth.

The Bill aims to change the current list of “British values” required to be taught in schools in England and Wales, although education is a devolved matter in Wales.

Values

Lord Harries has proposed that democracy, the rule of law, freedom, individual worth and respect for the environment are taught as “values of British citizenship”.In 2014, the Department for Education published guidance which stated all schools have a duty to “actively promote” the “fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”.The values were first set out by the coalition government in 2011.

Lord Harries, moving his Bill at second reading, told peers: “I believe passionately that fundamental values should be taught in schools, at a time when the world has a growing number of dictatorships, autocracies and managed democracies, it’s vital that pupils in our schools should understand the fundamental political values on which our society is founded.”

Lord Harries added: “For young people this is often the key moral issue of our times. I believe that the addition of respect for the environment would help young people see the importance of this set of values as a whole.”

He added that the Bill would “give a boost to citizenship education, it would show clearly the political values that are to be taught, (and) it would give the subject a much sharper focus”.

Threats

Lord Blunkett said: “We have seen over the summer the riots taking place across our country sadly, and because of course we see the most enormous threats both from the distortion on social media, and the re-emergence of the far-right across the world, so this is the moment to reinforce the importance of those values which do hold us together, the ties that bind.”He added: “Let us take this Bill and use it as a mechanism to go forward, genuinely believing if we don’t teach this now, we’ll regret it later.”Lord Blunkett also argued that teachers should receive additional training and funding to accomplish the Bill’s ambitions, saying: “We must train teachers, we must give bursaries – which we’re not doing – to enable that to take place.”

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Lord Storey welcomed the Bill but stressed the need for British values to be “taken seriously” in schools.

He questioned if teachers received specific training on the subject, adding: “It’ll end up like what often happens with subjects which are not exam assessed, they just become something that’s just pushed to one side.

“If we’re really serious about, we have to be serious about it in schools.”

Concern

For the Conservatives, the Earl of Effingham said: “Pupils are currently not tested on the values, which means that headteachers are much less focused on this. So will the Government start testing?”

Education minister Baroness Smith of Malvern said Labour governments have a “proud history” of promoting British values in the education system.

She said: “This Government will continue that tradition to ensure our children and young people are supported to become active and engaged citizens.”

Lady Smith went on to express “concern” about the Bill’s approach to legislating on British values, saying: “The fundamental British values at the moment are not currently set out as a list of values that exist within law. The guidance is non-statutory.

“Primary legislation that changes and, to a certain extent, sets in stone British values would potentially limit school freedoms to tailor their approach and would open schools up to external challenge to their provision beyond Ofsted inspections, which are right actually to ensure that values are being properly dealt with.

“Dealing with that challenge would in turn place huge burdens on schools.”

Lady Smith said ensuring schools have some autonomy in this area is important, adding: “Schools need to be free to embed the values in a way that meets the needs of their pupils.”

The Bill received an unopposed second reading and will undergo further scrutiny at a later date, although is unlikely to become law without Government support.


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
11 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
David Pearn
David Pearn
19 hours ago

Only teach Welsh values to Welsh children 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 they’ll have you singing god save the king soon if they could.

Ap Kenneth
Ap Kenneth
19 hours ago

What exactly are “British” values and how do they differ from most other European countries. There is nothing exceptional about this list and some values such as democracy it could be said that it is very limited in the UK..

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
19 hours ago

What a horrendous idea! Living in Cymru I don’t want to see British values being taught, though the history of the British Empire taught from a critical perspective might not be a bad idea.

I shudder when anything suggests that I’ll have to see more bloody Union Flags everywhere.

hdavies15
hdavies15
18 hours ago
Reply to  Padi Phillips

It’s Blunkett, mun, he’s been unsighted for so long he doesn’t have a clue what’s been going in this country ever since his boss Bliar saw fit to carry on with the erosion of any real values left in the crumbling UK. Since then it’s got worse, or even worser but old Blunkett sat in his Upper House bubble has no clue or is deliberately ignoring signals.

Rob
Rob
19 hours ago

Whats the point in teaching British values if it only applies to England and Wales? Surely it should be taught across all 4 UK nations, with English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish values also being taught is their respective nations. This makes British values look increasingly the same as English values, in which they being imposed on in Wales. Unionists are once again shooting themselves in the foot. Come to think of it, be my guest!!

Nia James
Nia James
18 hours ago

The “British value of democracy” is a million miles away from the actual value (and practice) of democracy. The Brit version hinges on an undemocratic House of Lords and a Head of State, currently tottering around his Antipodean Realm, who is not only unelected but also creams the fat off our land and from our seas. But at least God will save him, if we all pull together and open our throats. On that anthemic note, enter Lord Harries – a former Bishop and Army Officer – who is clearly an ear to the ground sort of dude. A turbulent… Read more »

Jeff
Jeff
18 hours ago

Huh? British Values? Reading through the paper it means being decent. But the previous government had to “British” it all up.

Re name it, just call it “decent values” then teach the kids history such as which country mansion and estates in the UK benefited hugely from slavery and how much compensation they received from our taxes. That sort of thing.

Annibendod
Annibendod
18 hours ago

When the British army strapped people to artilliery and fired them, were those “British Values”? When Tony Blair and his government lied about WMD in Iraq and joined the rabid American neocons on a bloodsoaked crusade to remodel the Middle East to their liking (and failed miserably), were those “British Values”? When Wales does not once in some 170 years of so-called British democracy give the Tories a majority but we get repeatedly saddled with their blight on our nation … is that “British Values”? You can stick your “British Values” up the same place you can stick your blessed… Read more »

Last edited 18 hours ago by Annibendod
Dai Ponty
Dai Ponty
17 hours ago

British Values what a bloody laugh we have 2 unionist parties that are rotten to the core liars cheats and thieves a second tier the house of Lords with 90 Hereditary Peers handed down plus the ones nominated giving large donations to Labour Tory and other parties the civil service the top jobs taken by the Toff public schoolboys like Eton and top of the tree Royals god forbid we are in the TWENTY FIRST CENTUARY and the top jobs are for the old school tie brigade those are supposed to be values you can keep them give me a… Read more »

Sioned Huws
Sioned Huws
11 hours ago

British values – Flying the Butchers Apron wherever possible to remove any previous existence. The British Broadcasting Company – denying the slaughter of thousands of innocent children and people in the Gaza strip, West Bank and now Lebanon, never mind the ‘British’ attrocities committed over the last millenia. Let’s teach the truth about the British colonist history which still continues and the connection between the arms industry, capitalism and the wars all over the world today.

Amos
Amos
4 minutes ago

Boris Johnson as PM was British values personified.

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.