Starmer will give 16-year-olds the vote – but they aren't studying politics

Telegraph

11 hours ago

Children are uninterested in studying politics at GCSE, despite Labour announcing that it will lower the voting age to 16.
Analysis by The Telegraph shows that the take-up of politics-related subjects at GCSE has remained significantly lower than others, such as religious studies, over the past five years.
Around three per cent of teenagers are thought to have taken a politics-related GCSE this summer, according to provisional entry data from the Department for Education (DfE).
Separate figures obtained by The Telegraph show that teaching staff are ill-equipped to provide lessons on the subject to 16-year-olds.
Just nine teachers across the whole of England who offered lessons on government and politics to GCSE pupils last year had a relevant post A-level qualification in the subject, according to official data released through Freedom of Information laws.
Last month, ministers confirmed that they would lower the voting age in Britain by two years.
Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, said Labour would make its manifesto pledge law by the end of this Parliament, meaning 16-year-olds would be able to vote at the next general election.
Experts have called for that to be matched with better politics teaching in schools amid concerns over a lack of political engagement among young people and an over-reliance on social media content.
The DfE does not publish specific participation data for the government and politics GCSE because entries are so low that it is categorised along with other social sciences.
Citizenship studies
Pupils can also take a separate GCSE in citizenship studies, which is a mandatory part of the national curriculum and is taught in the same vein as personal, social, health and economic education.
Take-up of overall social sciences has grown by a quarter since 2021, with 50,025 pupils sitting GCSEs this summer in one or more of those subjects – which also include psychology and law. But individual figures for politics are thought to make up a very small portion of those numbers.
The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), a Northern Irish exam board that is one of the only ones to offer the government and politics GCSE, has recorded just a handful of students taking the subject over the past few years.
Data provided to The Telegraph showed that 205 pupils sat the CCEA's government and politics GCSE in 2021, with the figure rising to 313 last year.
The figures are eclipsed by the popularity of other optional subjects at GCSE, with nearly 292,000 students studying geography and more than 240,000 taking religious studies.
Entries for citizenship studies GCSE have remained similarly low, having barely moved over the past five years despite an increase in the 16-year-old population. Around three per cent of students sat an exam in the subject last year, with the figure expected to stay roughly the same this summer.
The Government is facing calls to make politics a more fundamental part of the national curriculum in England to better equip children with the skills they need for adult life.
Last year, Labour appointed Prof Becky Francis, an education expert, to lead an independent review into the current curriculum and assessment model, which will publish its findings in the autumn.
An interim report by Prof Francis, published earlier this year, said the review had 'heard consistently from children and young people and their parents that they want more focus' on subjects such as 'financial education, careers knowledge and politics and governance'.
However, a Government source told The Telegraph there were no plans to make politics a compulsory GCSE subject or to broaden teaching on the topic, even with 16-year-olds set to get the vote.
They instead pointed to the existing citizenship part of the national curriculum, which includes teaching on the UK's political system and democracy, as well as modules on the justice system, police and public money.
Schools are required to offer citizenship lessons, but there is no minimum number of hours mandated for the subject and many schools stop teaching it by Year Nine. By contrast, schools must teach a minimum of two hours of physical education each week.
Rollout has also been criticised as patchy, with just 42 per cent of teachers in England saying their schools provided regular citizenship lessons in 2023, according to a poll by the Institute For Public Policy Research think tank.
Data from the school workforce census, obtained by The Telegraph through freedom of information requests, also showed a dearth in qualified politics teachers at GCSE level – they are instead concentrated on A-level pupils.
There were 17 teachers across the whole of England offering politics lessons to pupils in Years Seven to Nine last year who had a post-A-level qualification in the subject, with the figure dropping to just nine for pupils in Years 10 and 11.
The number of qualified teachers then swelled to 1,342 for pupils in Years 12 and 13, with politics generally taken more seriously as a subject at A-level.
The DfE did not provide similar data for qualified teachers offering GCSE lessons on citizenship studies, but figures show that fewer than a fifth of those teaching all age groups had a degree in a relevant subject last year.
Overall GCSE results this summer are expected to be broadly similar to those seen last year, when more than a fifth – or 21.8 per cent – of all entries were awarded the top grades.
However, pupils could face tougher competition for sixth form places this year after the Government hit private school fees with VAT for the first time from Jan 1, 2025.
It is expected to spark a scramble for places at top state-funded schools, with a rise in the 16-year-old population set to add to pressure.
Prof Lee Elliot Major, a social mobility expert at the University of Exeter, told the PA news agency: 'Competition for the most selective sixth forms will be fiercer than ever, with fears over VAT on private schools likely driving more families to seek out places in the state sector.'