Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including content on contemporary antisemitism within the existing mandatory Holocaust material in the school curriculum.

The purpose of Holocaust education in history is to teach about why and how the Holocaust happened. This will include teaching about antisemitism in this historical context due to the centrality of antisemitism to the Nazi’s ideology. Such teaching can provide schools with a basis for teaching about contemporary antisemitism in lessons beyond history, for example in citizenship.

The department supports teachers through our Educate Against Hate website, which provides teachers with a range of free, quality-assured resources, including on building resilience to antisemitism, teaching about tolerance and rejecting discrimination.

We have also committed £7 million to fund projects and programmes to improve confidence and resilience in tackling antisemitism in education. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has also asked Sir David Bell to undertake an independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges, which will be published this autumn.