Political Education In Schools

There are many young people who attend school and they are not even aware of the name of our Prime Minister, Brexit or who the leading political party are. In addition to this, some young people do not even know how to register to vote and why they should vote. For those that are questioned on why they do not want to vote, they tend to reply with the statements, "My vote won't make a difference", "The politicians are all the same.", "I don't know who to vote for".

The indifference and unawareness is unfortunate however, it is worth considering that maybe political education should be pushed for within schools. This is mainly because schools are a place where students are exposed to ideas, theories and fields of knowledge of the world that hey would never encounter within everyday life. Further to this, school allows young people to critically analyse, perform, read etc. Therefore, this begs the question that shouldn't the education system incorporate political education within the curriculum as politics is part of the outside world that students are being taught about? Shouldn't students be encouraged to have knowledge on a topic that affects their lives from birth until death? Shouldn't they be encouraged to stand up for their views through political awareness and engagement? Shouldn't they keep up to date with the country's political status?

There are some students who are registered to vote and are politically aware due to educating themselves during their spare time. Nevertheless, for other young people who do not have the initiative to educate themselves, it is essential that the education system put forward political education in order to make sure that all students know about politics. It is understandable that the vote is not eligible for young people until the age of 18. However, young people being politically aware is an aspect that would increase the amount of young people registering to vote as well voters during the elections. Furthermore, the participation of young people within politics can lead the age of the vote being lowered to 16 as politicians and the general public would conclude that young people are politically responsible to make the right judgements when it comes to voting.

Bite the Ballot is advocating for political education within schools through the Northern Ireland's "Schools Initiative". This initiative makes it easier for schools and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to work together in order to increase the amount of young people registering to vote. When some changes were made to the Northern Ireland's electoral registration,only 244 attainers were registered. However after this programme was introduced, the number increased to 11,227. From these results, it is without a shadow of a doubt that if a United Kingdom, nationwide "Schools Initiative" was implemented, perhaps it would have a similar success rate by registering around 34,448 attainers.

It would essential for the education system to look at the idea of having politics within education from this perspective. Young people should have the chance to be educated on how their country is run as well as how they can participate in making a change through voting. After all, as the late Nelson Mandela once said, "education is a weapon which you can use to change the world".