Education: Citizenship Studies

Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton Excerpts

Monday 30th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Baroness. Parenting skills in this country are, in many cases, sadly lacking but it is not easy to dictate to parents, even young parents, how to do that. However, all good schools certainly seek to engage with their parents not just about their children’s education but, bluntly, to improve the education of the parents themselves.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, in making rather sweeping asides about the Labour Party’s policy, will the Minister please accept that there is a world of difference between laying down what children ought to learn as part of the curriculum and getting into the dangerous area of politicians deciding which books to teach the curriculum from?

[Lord Nash]

I would agree entirely with the noble Baroness except that I think it is a sad reflection on a country with as rich a literary history as we have that more than 90% of essays written for GSCE English literature are on three books.