Education Secretary warns of national emergency over school antisemitism
Bridget Phillipson says Holocaust education lessons 'needed now more than ever'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has warned of a “national emergency” over the surge of antisemitism in Britain’s schools.
In an interview she spoke of the urgent need for the government’s commitment to ensure every school child receives Holocaust education.
Phillipson said: “We must confront an alarming truth — the lessons of history are being forgotten by a growing number of our young people.”
She added: “Jewish pupils are being bullied in playgrounds, Holocaust jokes circulate on social media and swastikas appear on school property.”
Stressing the need for Holocaust education for all school pupils she told The Times:”These lessons are needed now more than ever. The horrific surge in antisemitism among schoolchildren since October 7 is not merely concerning — it is a national emergency.
“That is why every child in every school across England will learn about the Holocaust, about antisemitism, and about how easily democracy can fracture when hatred goes unchallenged.
“Through education we can build children’s resilience not just to antisemitic hate, but all other forms of hate too. The promise of ‘Never Again’ is meaningless if we fail to teach the next generation about what happened and why.”
Under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is going through the House of Lords, all schools (including academies) would need to follow the national curriculum, currently the subject of a wide-ranging review.
The Holocaust has been a mandatory topic within history teaching since the first curriculum for pupils in Key Stage 3 was issued in 1991, and is typically covered in Year 9 (aged 13 to 14).
But academies — which account for 82 per cent of state-funded secondary schools — do not currently have to follow the national curriculum.
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