UK’s government tells schools to be ‘balanced’ on Palestine, Israel, BLM

London (QNN)- The British Department for Education (DfE) has told schools to be “balanced” in covering topics, such as Palestine, Israel, and Black Lives Matter (BLM).

The British DfE issued on Thursday a guidance that explains the existing legal requirements relating to a “political impartiality in schools.”

The guidance says modern historical events including “many topics relating to empire and imperialism” must be dealt with in a “balanced” way, and mentions the ongoing “Palestine-Israel conflict” directly.

It provides an example situation in which a seemingly neutral online resource fails to give a “balanced account of the conflict”, such as by presenting “partisan political views” in purportedly “factual content”.

The guidance says:

Schools should be conscious of resources from external agencies that might initially appear appropriate but may contain bias and undermine a balanced account of the political issues being taught. See the section on using external agencies for more information.

Scenario,
A teacher finds a resource online designed to support teaching about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is a political issue. It is hosted by an external organisation which does not seem to have an obvious partisan political affiliation.

The resource appears to be helpful as it provides both factual content, and excerpts from statements by significant political figures from both sides of the conflict. However, on closer inspection, it does not provide a balanced account of the conflict. For instance, the apparently factual content includes partisan political views on both historical events in the region, presented without additional context that would make clear that these are contested views. Several quotes from political figures have been inappropriately abridged to present an inaccurate version of what was really said, and important contextual information about these quotes has been omitted.

Given that it might not be clear to pupils that the resource promotes a contested partisan political view in this way, rather than providing a balanced account of the political issue in question, it may be advisable to avoid its use.

The guidance also refers to racism, saying educators “should be clear that racism has no place in our society”.

It says those teaching about particular activist groups such as certain organisations linked with the “Black Lives Matter movement… should be aware that this may cover partisan political views” – those which are outside the “basic shared principle that racism is unacceptable”.

In these cases, according to the DfE’s guidance, there should be “steps to offer pupils a balanced account of opposing views”, adding that students must not be urged to back organisations who promote these stances.

The guidance on “Political impartiality in schools” comes as some staff and students at Britain’s universities say they cannot freely express solidarity with Palestinians.