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Protesting is a vital part of democracy. Society would look extremely different today if you were to remove protests from our history - just think women’s rights as one example!
Protesting is a direct way that members of the public can show frustration or discontent with politics or issues in global society.
The right to demonstrate or protest has become particularly important for young people in the past few years, first demonstrated with the schools strikes movement in 2019, followed by the Black Lives Matter protests and more recent pro-Palestine marches. Young people under the age of 18 in the UK do not currently have the right to vote in national general elections, therefore for many, protesting is one of the only ways they feel they can get their voice heard. This is most relevant regarding the climate and ecological emergency as the effects of (or lack of) decisions made today will have the biggest impact on younger generations.
For these reasons the Department for Education’s new statutory attendance guidance that pupils should not be given approval for time off school to attend protests is concerning for our democracy and directly suppresses young people’s voices.
Education secretary Gilian Keegan’s announcement that ‘missing school for activism is unacceptable’ is perplexing as particularly in the case of climate strikes, it is a strange experience to be in school and not learning about environmental change during a climate emergency.
Not only are we not being taught about what is happening, but we are now also being punished for fighting for an honest education as we can’t take authorised leave from school to protest.
The government setting this new statutory guidance from August is censoring for many young people who are promising representations of politically engaged members of society. Young people across the country are trying to make changes, to call out politicians and to save the planet, again and again we are shut out and shut down.