Christchurch City Libraries/Flickr. CC (by-nc-nd)
One way we participate in democracy is by voting. Another may be protesting, or through supporting some trade union action. However we engage, we are doing so armed with some knowledge about the current state of affairs, and having made a judgement on how we would like them to be in the future. For all of government’s calls for us to be active citizens, engaging in a healthy democracy, it is less clear how we are expected to acquire the knowledge required to be adequately informed. Current political and economic education is pitiful in this country, and via political parties, the education system and trade unions, it desperately needs to be revived.
After the age of 14, students in the UK need never study history, geography or English literature, subjects that are often a gateway into study of politics and economics (which are seldom available at GCSE level). Those who are studying economics and politics at post-14, post-16, and at university level are overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. Unsurprisingly, this is the demographic working professionally in politics and economics today.
