Politics is missing in education 

With the UK is lowering the voting age to 16, Bayside student Ivy Soanes has reflected on research findings in a survey undertaken as part of her A-level studies. The research project asked local youngsters about their interest and knowledge of politics.

Young people are the future voters. I am one of those young people and I believe that means that they should be informed in what exactly it is they are voting for and how to vote.

From personal experience, I find that as part of the young people category, I never learnt much about politics at school until I studied the humanitarian subjects more but even then, my knowledge from education on politics isn’t current or local.

Through Sociology A-level, I did an independent research project with two other classmates on the topic of politics’ place in education which confirmed what I thought when it came to the subject: that there is a lack of politics taught in education, even at higher level education like GCSE and A-Level.

Politics is a subject that is in the schools’ main exam board as citizenship studies at GCSE and Politics at A-Level and is taught in other countries.

I find it interesting that it’s not offered as a course locally.

Especially since there are the teachers for it, and it is an important subject that if young people are interested in it, it should be taught.

The research project as part of my A-Level Sociology class focused on years 9, 10 and 12, which spans in age from 13 to 17, and it was conducted during an exam period; this meant we couldn’t get many 11 and 13 students.

Given a chance to do it again and at a different time and larger scale, we would have preferred to get their opinions and data as the most important people to hear from, both at leaving ages for school, especially with voting age discussions.

Overall, we had 60 respondents to our anonymous survey, 51 students and nine teachers, separating students mostly based on what subjects they preferred linking interest in politics and subject choice.

Students more interested in scientific subjects had a 71% rate of political disinterest with the remaining 29% politically interested, which is what I expected it to look like, because humanities subjects focus more on politics in comparison to STEM subjects.

However, the fact that pupils who chose more humanitarian subjects were at a 45% to 55% interest rate was not expected.

Overall, the project found that 63% students were disinterested in politics.

Some students commented that politics is not something they ever learned about, but said they could find an interest in it.

The respondents were asked if they could name three local politicians and, separately, three international politicians.

Surprisingly, 56% of respondents could not name three local politicians.

But 88% knew of the Chief Minister, however only 41% correctly named him.  

It wasn’t shocking that most pupils could name more international politicians, it makes sense given that politics is publicised on social media more outside of Gibraltar.

The research found young people are more interested in news outside of Gibraltar.

When it came to where they kept up with their news, it was most commonly through social media or through family and friends instead of traditional news outlets like radio, television and newspapers.

Teachers, when asked the same questions, were much more politically informed which followed my belief that politics is not an education-taught subject but something you learn once you’re already of voting age and this links with how many people vote once they turn 18.

Last election there was a 71% turnout. The under-20s of the population had a 61% turnout and is comparable to the percentage of people who were not interested in politics in my research project which was 63%.

I think that this is an issue with discussions about lowering the voting age to 16, which is positive given that, at 16, you can leave school to work full-time, pay tax and consent to medical procedures like adults so why shouldn’t voting age be lowered to match?

If the voting age were lowered to 16, I think it would change the turnout.

If politics became a subject taught more before the age where you can legally leave school as a subject more often during PSHE where students are supposed to be learning things to assist them in the future.

Maybe, as a few lessons per term where they cover the UK voting system and local politics as most students will either stay in Gibraltar or continue studies in the UK and stay. Even if it were not lowered, I think that these lessons would be so useful for students both finishing GCSEs and A-Levels.

As a young person myself getting closer to turning 18, I would like to see changes happen one day and believe that my peers would wish the same.

If young people are able to vote at 16, if the voting age is lowered, I believe they should be informed voters who know what they want for their future and know what they should be voting for, to benefit themselves and the community, to continue to have a stable and safe future, especially with so much going on in the world currently.

I believe that teachers would be just as happy for it to be introduced as a choice subject, not just at PSHE lessons.

I would like to say I don’t think it is just an issue in Gibraltar that young people do not vote if it is not compulsory. It’s an issue globally that young people don’t vote and it is down to simple things like the fact that we aren’t made aware of how much politics affect our lives.

Even if they are aware, they believe that politics is just out of their hands. One anonymous student responded in the survey we conducted that “it’s funny watching people I have not approved pass laws I have no control over” the key point to pick out is that they believe that they have no control over politics and I feel like that’s something a lot of people would believe that would put them off voting.

Politics is still not taught in school unless you pick a subject that it is in embedded in like History, which is where all my political interest comes from as an A-Level history student.

It’s a shame really that politics isn’t taught in school, not just for the sake of voting but for young people who want to pursue a political career.

Ivy Soanes is an A-level sociology student who was on work experience with the Chronicle.