Friday, October 03, 2008

Citizenship in English

Teachers in the Valencian Community are prepared to strike if the authorities continue to insist upon them teaching EpC (Education for Citizenship) in English.

The difficulty for schools is that they don't have the staff qualified to deliver the course in English. In any case there is a problem with the supply of books on the subject. Publishers were reluctant to produce books in English when it was unclear whether the subject was to be taught in Castilian, Valencian or English.

Having struggled to teach Citizenship in Liverpool to a Year 11 class before retiring, I can sympathise with these teachers. It was bad enough delivering the subject in the native tongue let alone trying to teach it in some other language. In my experience, subjects like PSE (Personal Social Education) and Citizenship were unpopular with both teachers and students. None of the carefully crafted courses with beautifully illustrated text books could entice either group to take an interest in these non-examinable subjects.

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