New Delhi: Gandhi may still be in news and in talks across the world from the United Nations to Sotheby's, but Britain doesn't think he is historically that relevant any more!
A new national curriculum prepared for British secondary schools has recommended dropping of Mahatma Gandhi, among others, from a list of key historical figures recommended for teaching. The new national curriculum will come into force next year.
"The reforms will give teachers more freedom over their lessons. The new regime will encourage schools to organise their timetables differently and focus on tailoring teaching to the needs of individual children," the government says.
The other big names dropped from the list include Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Adolf Hitler. "Schools in Britain will no longer be specifically advised to focus on Gandhi, Churchill, Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Benito Mussolini in their lessons on 20th century history," the new curriculum says.
Specific periods such as the Wars of the Roses have also been cut from the notes accompanying the statutory curriculum. Pupils aged 11 to 14 will, however, study broad topics, including the First and Second World Wars, the Holocaust, the British Empire and slave trade.
The new list of recommended authors for 11 to 14-year-olds includes contemporary writers such as Douglas Adams and Alan Bennett, 20th century writers including T S Eliot and George Orwell and earlier writers such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Pupils will also have to study "at least one play by Shakespeare".
Among the few named figures to remain under the new curriculum are William Wilberforce, who will be studied for lessons on the slave trade. The history of the development of the EU has also survived as a specific topic for study.
Ministers announced reforms to the national curriculum for 11 to 14 year olds to bring secondary education up to date and allow teachers more flexibility over what they teach.
A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) said: "The new secondary curriculum does not prescribe to teachers what they must include. "Teachers know that they need to mention these pivotal figures.
"They don't need to be instructed by law to mention them in every history class. Of course, good teachers will be teaching the history of Churchill as part of the history of Britain. The two are indivisible."
In modern languages, pupils will be able to study traditional subjects such as French or German, as well as Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic and Urdu. Tory MP Nicholas Soames, Winston Churchill's grandson, said the move was "madness".
In history, 11 to 14 year-olds would still learn about the British Empire, the two World Wars and the Holocaust and in English, children will still read Shakespeare, learn grammar and be required to spell properly.
But a range of new topics are also being introduced to modernise education for the 21st century. Teachers said the new curriculum had the potential to give them more freedom to be creative.
(With PTI inputs)
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