5TH CYP


The Lord Speaker addressing delegates in the Robing Room.


for Commonwealth Youth Parliamentarians to continuing sharing challenges and successes. Engaging young people both


within the U.K. and internationally is one of my major aims. I have continued my predecessor’s Peers in Schools programme which has now sent peers to speak in around 1000 schools, reaching around 50,000 students. There is also a


well-resourced Education Unit within the Houses of Parliament, which runs visits both to and from schools in order to teach young people about Parliament and provides extensive teaching materials for schools. Parliamentary Outreach and the House of Lords Outreach team undertake similar activities with community and youth groups, working outside the traditional


educational system to reach young people. This work complements the


recent addition of citizenship to the national curriculum in Britain, which is now taught up to the age of 16. Citizenship was introduced as a compulsory component of education in 2002 in a move to improve political literacy and participation in the U.K. It is now one of the fastest-growing


subjects at GCSE, the general exams taken by all British students at the age of sixteen. The curriculum is designed to


encourage young people to involve themselves in their communities and give them an understanding of how to influence the democratic process, lessons that unlike so many school subjects will have a direct impact on all citizens for the rest of their lives.


The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One | 35


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