On Monday 2nd November, the Education Secretary said that the UK “should not apologise for our past but learn lessons from it” as he answered questions about including colonial history in the British curriculum.
The British curriculum dedicates plenty of attention to the violence of others – in Nazi Germany or during the American Civil War – and goes into great detail on a few events in medieval and pre-Victorian English history, like the Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the reign of Henry VIII. But a British school curriculum hardly teaches anything about the brutality of British colonialism including lessons around East India Company, or how Winston Churchill’s administration allowed Bengal famine. At present, it is not compulsory for primary or secondary school students to be educated on The Empire's role in colonisation, or the transatlantic slave trade. For long campaigners and activists have urged the government for compulsory education on these subjects with a certain petition accumulating nearly 250,000 signatures. Yet, the government has not taken any decisive measures.
Responding to a question at a Webinar hosted by the Conservative Friends of India Gavin Williamson said, “There is a constant debate about what constitutes British history. But the histories of these countries are already taught in some form. There is both good and bad elements in the British history but it is also about using appropriate resources, books and records to be able to teach everything accurately.
“We should not be apologising about our past but should learn something from it. And that is already embedded in the British curriculum. We are trying to provide better resources to teach every aspect of the UK’s history - good or bad.”
The webinar was moderated by Councillor Ameet Jogia and Councillor Reena Ranger.
In the meantime, the education secretary was reportedly in a scuffle with Chancellor Rishi Sunak on the extension of free school meals. It had earlier emerged that Gavin Willamson had sought extra funding for these schools. But in a statement to the Financial Times, sources close to the Chancellor denied these reports stating, “There has been no new proposal from the Department for Education about releasing cash for this half-term.”
