Historians fear ‘hijacked’ syllabus

ACADEMICS who favour decolonising curriculums are being consulted for England’s new history syllabus, prompting warnings that children’s education could be damaged if it is “hijacked”.

The “model history curriculum” is being developed for pupils aged 5-14 in time for 2024. Ministers said they would consult a “diverse panel of historians”, subject experts and school leaders.

One academic consulted is Christine Counsell, a Cambridge lecturer who last year wrote in a guide named What Should Schools Teach? that decolonising can provide redress against “history conceived as a mainly white, Anglocentric or Eurocentric and colonial past”. However, History Reclaimed, a group of scholars who object to decolonisation, found none of its members have been consulted so far. They include authors Simon Heffer and Andrew Roberts.

Prof Robert Tombs, a historian at Cambridge University, said the syllabus “must not be hijacked by those who have an interest in fomenting division”.

Prof Jeremy Black, emeritus professor of history at Exeter University, said decolonising was “anti-academic”.

A Department for Education spokesman said the syllabus “is not being designed to decolonise the curriculum” and would “tell the story of how the UK came to be”.