Dear Sir or Madam,

During April 2007 a number of stories circulated in the media that UK Schools were dropping lessons that contained references to Holocaust so as not to 'upset' Muslims, similar stories also circulated about the teaching of the history about the Crusades.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/ar...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/651...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk...

In a quote referenced at the time "Alan Johnson made clear in January 07 that there are certain subjects which will be protected in the new curriculum and that includes the Holocaust" - DfES spokesman.

Subsequently in April 2007, the DFES issued another statement that the "Teaching of the Holocaust is already compulsory in schools at Key Stage 3 [ages 11 to 14]. "It will remain so in the new KS3 curriculum from September 2008." The statement also stated that Education Secretary Alan Johnson himself had stressed this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/656...

Can you tell me if this is still the case? In that Key Stage 3 [ages 11 to 14] national curriculum will still contain Teaching of the Holocaust?

Yours faithfully,

Mike McNamara

Dear Mike

Thank you for your email dated 14 May about the suggestion that schools
in England would not teach about the Holocaust.

I can assure you that the suggestion is not true. What you have read
stems from inaccurate press reporting during last year. There has never
been any intention of removing the Holocaust from the national
curriculum. The Holocaust remains compulsory at Key Stage 3 (age 11-14)
and will remain compulsory when the revised Key Stage 3 curriculum is
implemented from September 2008.

You may want to be aware that the Secretary of State recently issued a
statement to the media and embassies across the world "to refute the
internet myth that the Holocaust has been removed from the national
curriculum." The Department fully believes in the importance of
students learning lessons from the horrors of the Holocaust and, because
of this, it continues to fund the Holocaust Educational Trust to take
two pupils aged 15 to 17 from every secondary school to visit Auschwitz,
to inform their school's study of the Holocaust.

Regards

Leona Smith
Public Communications Unit

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2008/0042105. To correspond by email with the Department for Children,
Schools and Families please contact [email address].

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