Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of strengthening media literacy programmes in the ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Political and media literacy are currently taught through the national curriculum for citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, which covers parliamentary democracy, the power of government, and how citizens and Parliament hold government to account. It also equips young people to distinguish between fact and opinion and understand the role of a free press. Primary schools can choose to teach citizenship, using non-statutory programmes of study at key stages 1 and 2. Complementary aspects of media literacy are also taught through relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) and computing, which together equip pupils to evaluate and apply information technology and to be a discerning consumer of information online.

Support for curriculum delivery is available through optional, free and adaptable resources from Oak National Academy (Oak). Oak launched its new curriculum sequences for secondary citizenship earlier this academic year, with the full package of curriculum resources expected to be available by this autumn. Oak resources are available here: https://www.thenational.academy/.

The Educate against Hate website also hosts a series of online media literacy resources, which seek to help young people evaluate the validity of information. These resources can be accessed here: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, conducted by a group of education leaders (the Review group) and chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The terms of reference were published last July and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/curriculum-and-assessment-review.

The Review will seek to deliver a curriculum that is rich and broad, which ensures children and young people are equipped with the essential knowledge and skills to enable them to adapt and thrive in the world and workplace of the future. The Review will consider the skills needed to ensure that children are resilient to misinformation and can distinguish fact from fiction.

The role of the Review group is to consider the evidence, the responses to the call for evidence and widespread engagement with the sector, and then make recommendations for the government to consider. The Review group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work, and will publish its final report with recommendations this autumn. The department will take decisions on what changes to make in light of these recommendations.