The positives of the British Empire must be taught alongside the negatives, the equalities minister has said, after launching plans to overhaul the way history is taught in schools.
Kemi Badenoch said that schools needed to tell “both sides of the story” as part of a more consistent and nuanced history curriculum.
She said that the balanced way in which she was taught about the British Empire during her upbringing in Nigeria had helped to inform her views about how it should be taught in schools in the UK.
Badenoch, who was born in London to Nigerian parents but spent some of her childhood in Lagos, said the “good things” that missionaries brought to the country during the era of colonialism had been balanced against the “terrible things” that had also happened.
“Too many children are now taught to see themselves as victims rather than just the latest generation of an ever evolving story,” she told Times Radio’s T&G show. “I don’t think that the former is helpful. I think the latter is.” Last week she set out plans for a new history curriculum as part of a wider scheme to tackle racial inequalities.
It forms part of a fresh government focus on improving impartiality in schools. Last month the government issued guidance to schools stating that teachers must avoid using material from campaigning organisations such as Black Lives Matter that may have “partisan political views”. It follows growing concern over reports of schools adapting the way they teach subjects such as the British Empire.
Badenoch said the history curriculum would be decided by experts and would ensure that the teaching of topics such as the British Empire and slavery “weaves in all the different facets of different ethnicities into the story of Britain, without making it seem like one particular ethnic group or skin colour owns this type of history”.
She added: “The plans will ensure that children from all backgrounds are taught to see black, Asian and white historical figures as their history rather than a ‘segregated history’. British history belongs to all of us.”
However there is much disagreement on this suggestion, as Milton Wallace a history professor pointed out’ well there were good things that happened in Nazi Germany but sometimes the atrocities so far outweigh any positives that outlining them seems like your deliberately trying to miss the bigger picture.
