This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Petition Introduce Gender and Race equity for GCSE English Literature set texts
The UK Government should be doing more to ensure that books written by women and by BAME authors are not only on the English Literature GCSE curriculum, but also become required reading.
More details
The curriculum states that students should study:
- at least one play by Shakespeare
- at least one 19th century novel
- a selection of poetry since 1789
- fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914
Based on the current reading list, it is too easy for students to only read white male authors.
The following two statements should be added to the curriculum:
- at least one selected text should be written by a female author
- at least one selected text should be written by a BAME author
This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months
Related activity
MPs to examine Black history and cultural diversity in the curriculum
The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee petition.parliament.uk) will hear from petition creators and other campaigners and experts in an 'evidence session' on Black history and cultural diversity. This session is the result of the petition you signed and others calling for changes to the curriculum which have received hundreds of thousands of signatures.
The Petitions Committee will be working with the Women and Equalities Committee and MPs from the Education Committee.
Find out more about the session: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/120411/petitions-committee-announces-joint-evidence-session-on-black-history-and-cultural-diversity-in-the-curriculum/
Watch the session live at 2.30pm on Thursday 5 November: https://youtu.be/WjwNciEYe9s
What is the Petitions Committee?
The Petitions Committee is a cross-party group of MPs that considers e-petitions submitted on Parliament’s petitions website and public (paper) petitions presented to the House of Commons. It is independent of the Government.
You can get updates on their work by following the Committee on Twitter @HoCpetitions or on their website: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/
Find out more about how petitions work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGEOraE08Jk&feature=youtu.be
Find out more about the Women and Equalities Committee:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/
Find out more about the Education Committee:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/
These are ‘select committees’. Find out how Select Committees work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_2RDuDs44c