UK SCHOOLS FACE CALLS TO TEACH ‘TRICKY’ PALESTINE-ISRAEL CRISIS

▶ Interest in the history of the conflict has surged among pupils since October 7 attacks

Fewer than 50 schools in the UK taught the Palestine-Israel conflict as part of the GCSE curriculum last year, despite the country’s historical involvement in the region.

Last year, 1,812 GCSE pupils registered at exams for the module across 44 schools, which represented one in 50 of all institutions offering the intermediate exam.

GCSEs are taught in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while Scotland follows its own school curriculum.

The history of the crisis, from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the Oslo Accords of 1995, is taught in a GCSE history module by exam body Edexcel.

It is the only module on the subject in the UK.

It accounted for 0.3 per cent of the 331,146 GCSE history entries last year, figures from the Nuffield Foundation showed.

The module is offered at less than 2 per cent of state secondary schools (3,061) across the UK, excluding Scotland, data from the Department of Education showed.

Another exam body, OCR, dropped its GCSE module covering the subject in 2019 and now offers it for A-level pupils.

The figures were reported before the October 7 attacks, which led to the Gaza war.

Previous periods of violence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem have led pupils in the UK to raise questions about the broader Palestine-Israel conflict and its origins.

British MP Layla Moran, who used to teach maths and physics, said teachers needed better resources and support to offer the module in classrooms.

“As a former teacher, I can understand why this topic could be seen as being trickier to teach than other modules,” she told The National.

Ms Moran, who has Palestinian heritage, called for more to be done to improve the UK public’s understanding of the crisis, with Israel’s bombardment of Gaza stoking tensions and leading to mass protests.

The lack of available history in schools across the UK makes the issue more challenging.

“We have seen increasingly divisive rhetoric around the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with political leaders using events to stoke division among our communities at home,” Ms Moran said.

“But the lack of any knowledge of the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict makes having reasoned conversations more difficult.

“It’s more important than ever that teachers are given sufficient support and training to equip them with the confidence they need to choose the GCSE history module and teach the material.”

Extra-curricular initiatives that address the conflict and its history have gained popularity in schools since October 7.

Among them is Parallel Histories, which was founded in 2014 and creates resources for teachers to use in lessons about the conflict and its history.

Founder Michael Davies told The National that the resources examined the subject from the perspective of the Palestinians and Israelis.

Requests for teaching material tripled after Hamas launched its October 7 attacks, he said.

Samira, a teacher at a school in London, is among those using Parallel Histories material in the classroom.

She fears that failing to teach her pupils about the conflict now could leave them more vulnerable to misinformation on social media.

“When teachers are not talking about this, when the adults are not guiding them, they get their education, news, entertainment through problematic sources,” said Samira, who teaches at a Muslimmajority school.

She said there was a growing demand among teachers and pupils to address the conflict.

“The boys really wanted us to teach it. It is part the world they’re living in. Right now, it’s a central part of the news they consume,” she said.

Ghanem Nuseibeh, chairman of UK charity Muslims Against Anti-Semitism, said teachers needed better training to deal properly with topics raised by the conflict in Gaza.

“A teacher who wants to take a subject on would need to be extremely sensitive to the students’ responses,” he said.

“I don’t think the majority of teachers are trained to deal with such an active conflict that brings up such high emotions.”

There are also concerns for the safety of teachers.

“Particularly now with social media, there will be an element of concern for their own safety and security from either side,” Mr Nuseibeh said.

We have seen divisive rhetoric around the conflict in Gaza, with leaders using events to stoke division at home LAYLA MORAN

British MP