Kick political activism out of the classroom to stop teachers 'brainwashing our children' with trans ideology and 'white privilege', says Laura Trott
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Schools would have to kick political activism out of the classroom to stop teachers ‘brainwashing our children’ under plans unveiled by the shadow education secretary.
Laura Trott said the Conservatives would ban teachers from discussing contested beliefs in the classroom such as ‘white privilege’ and that people can change their biological sex.
Parents will be given more say in what their children are taught and Ofsted will get new powers to stop pupils being indoctrinated by Left-wing ideas, she added.
Speaking at the Conservative conference in Birmingham on Tuesday, Ms Trott said: ‘We’ll properly enforce the rules on political impartiality for teachers and guest speakers.
‘And we’ll create a specific law around trade unions involved in education. They must not bring politics into schools.’
The shadow education secretary said some teachers are ‘brainwashing our children’ with Left-wing ‘propaganda’ taught ‘under the guise of equality or citizenship’.
She said: ‘Children as young as seven are being told they have white privilege. Pupils are learning that a woman can have a penis, a man can be pregnant and sex is assigned at birth.
‘Some have been told to rewrite negative headlines on migration to make them more positive. And others have been taught that Britain is a racist country. This is fiction being presented as fact.’
Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said the Conservatives would ban teachers from discussing contested beliefs in the classroom
British culture should have primacy over others in the classroom, Ms Trott added, as she pledged that a Tory government would not allow schools to force girls to cover their hair for religious reasons as part of their uniform policy.
It follows controversy after the policy was implemented for girls as young as seven by the Barnet Hill Academy, a Muslim faith school in north London.
Unveiling her pledge to parents, Ms Trott said the Tories would give the education watchdog Ofsted powers during inspections to consider whether schools are ‘impartial’.
Parents could also demand to see teaching materials and it would be made easier for them to ‘report failures of impartiality’ in schools.
Under the plans, teachers would also have to take compulsory training on impartiality and contentious issues, with statutory guidance issued for topics such as climate change, sex and gender.
Ms Trott said ‘union politics’ would not be allowed to ‘infect the classroom’ and children would be ‘taught the history of our amazing country and our shared values’.
She added: ‘I’m launching our pledge to parents, which lays out my commitment to mums and dads – I will keep political activism out of the classroom.
‘That means keeping trade union politics away from our children too.’
Schools are legally obliged to be impartial, but the shadow education secretary said the rules are poorly enforced, with little action taken against teachers who break the rules.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, criticised Ms Trott’s speech as ‘disappointing and cheap’ and said her policies had been ‘imported from Trump’s culture war’.
He added: ‘The slurs about hard-working teachers in this speech are shocking. Teachers already follow the law on impartiality in teaching.’
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