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Government urged to commit to diversifying the English literature curriculum in open letter
The government is being urged to commit to diversifying the English literature curriculum in an open letter from Penguin Random House, co-signed by authors and publishers from across the industry.
The letter was sent to Professor Becky Francis, who is running the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and minister for education and minister for women and equalities Bridget Phillipson.
The letter, sent earlier this week, has already accumulated 188 signatures, with names including Tom Fletcher, George the Poet, Dawn French, Stephen Fry, Lee Child, Jackie Kay, Afua Hirsch, Nikesh Shukla, Pat Barker, Terry Deary, George Monbiot, Marian Keyes, Ali Smith, Zeinab Badawi, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Malorie Blackman, Lisa Jewell and James Patterson.
PRH, the National Literary Trust, Publishers Association, Hachette Education, OCR and Pearson are also among some of the organisations who have signed.
The letter explains that the signatories share the review’s goal that the nation’s students deserve “a curriculum that reflects the issues and diversities of our society, ensuring all children and young people are represented".
The letter lays out how, in particular, they "understand first-hand the urgent need for the English literature curriculum to better meet students’ needs".
The letter continues: "We also know that the current English Literature curriculum is systematically failing to represent the diversity of our society in terms of the authors, stories and characters that are taught. Despite 37% of England’s school population identifying as Black, Asian or minority ethnic, 98.5% of English literature GCSE students do not study a text by a writer of colour. This sends powerful messages to young learners about whose lives and stories are valued, and results in many young people disengaging from the subject."
The letter ties in with the Lit in Colour initiative, of which PRH is a founding partner. The iniaitive works with schools and exam boards to "put writers of colour on the curriculum and to dismantle the barriers teachers believe are in place that stops them teaching these texts effectively".
To read the letter in full, visit the PRH website here.
