This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Introduce mandatory teaching of the British Empire on the National Curriculum
It should be taught in KS3 to ensure that all students are taught this regardless of GCSE. The Government argues schools "have the freedom & flexibility [...] to teach pupils about the history of Britain and the wider world. This can include the topic of the British Empire.” This is inadequate.
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Students in England can leave school without any knowledge on the history of British Empire and its legacy today. We cannot understand racism in the UK today without critically acknowledging our colonial legacy. In order to enable the future citizens of this country to tackle systemic racism, brought to the forefront, due to COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests in the UK, we need to Fill in the Blanks of our history, and that starts with teaching the history of the British Empire.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
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You may wish to sign some of these petitions:
Add education on diversity and racism to all school curriculums: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323808
Making the UK education curriculum more inclusive of BAME history: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323961
Teach Britain's colonial past as part of the UK's compulsory curriculum: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/324092
We have also published several petitions about race and equality more widely, which you can view here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions?state=open&topic=race-and-equality
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.