Hinds backs ‘diverse’ history teaching

SCHOOLS and universities are right to teach the contributions which ethnic minorities have made to history, the Education Secretary said.

Damian Hinds insisted it is a ‘good thing’ that the curriculum is now broader than 40 years ago and includes historical figures from a ‘diverse range of backgrounds’.

He said teaching used to be narrower and it is now right and proper that youngsters ‘learn a wider variety of history than we used to’.

However, he also stressed the importance of continuing to teach core British history and hinted his disapproval of those who seek to rewrite the subject for a political purpose. Mr Hinds’ comments come

amid a row over efforts to ‘ decolonise’ history and other courses in universities by making them less focused on white Europeans.

Last week, Universities UK urged ‘curriculum reviews’ to improve the way courses reflect the experience of ethnic minorities.

Asked about the issue at the NAHT conference, Mr Hinds said: ‘History is history, and things that have happened have happened. And you learn from them in multiple ways including from bad things.

‘It is right though that children learn a wider variety of history... that people of all sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities hear about people from a diverse range of backgrounds.’

Mr Hinds also said he supported Cambridge University’s decision to launch an inquiry into its historical links with the slave trade.