Schools and colleges need support to embed democracy into teaching and strengthen enactments of student voice, according to a new report.
Schools and colleges need support to embed democracy into teaching and strengthen enactments of student voice, according to a new report.
The report, by Dr Freya Aquarone at the Centre for Public Policy Research, is the culmination of an inquiry launched by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Schools, Learning and Assessment in November 2025, examining how schools and colleges can enable young people to feel empowered and enfranchised in anticipation of the introduction of votes at 16.
Votes at 16, which is already law for devolved elections in Wales and Scotland, is set to be extended to all of the UK in late 2026 or early 2027.
Research has demonstrated a clear relationship between learning and educational experiences relating to democracy and politics, and likelihood of voting and broader political participation.
But submissions to the inquiry found that schools and colleges are currently experienced by many young people as highly undemocratic places, particularly by those from historically marginalised groups. The National Union of School Students argued that young people feel "systematically excluded from the decisions made about them, leading to a decrease in trust in political institutions and democracy."
Meanwhile, the UK Youth Parliament stated that a strong appetite for political participation among young people is "frequently undermined by inconsistent access to high-quality political and citizenship education."
Submissions to the inquiry also underscored the way in which broader systemic issues - in particular, curriculum overload, high-stakes assessment cultures, and narrow approaches to school accountability - act as significant barriers to democratic work in schools.
The report suggests that giving young people first-hand experience of democracy in the institutions they spend most of their time is vital to challenging political marginalisation, and urges the Government to address these barriers so that schools have the space, time, flexibility and resource to prioritise democratic learning experiences.
It makes a number of recommendations to achieve this, including:
Ensuring young people have meaningful and non-tokenistic opportunities to engage in governance and decision-making
Exploring changes to initial teacher training and investing in continuing professional development to support democratic classroom practice
Ensuring that upcoming changes to the curriculum in response to the curriculum and assessment review create a core curriculum entitlement for citizenship that is clear, well sequenced and incorporates citizenship as both a dedicated subject and cross-curricular theme
The findings of this inquiry are clear: if we want to empower young people as democratic citizens, we need to ensure they have opportunities to practice democracy first hand. This means ensuring that schools and colleges offer a meaningful experience of being part of democratic community and provide learning experiences through which young people feel their voices are genuinely recognised and valued.
Freya Aquarone, Centre for Public Policy Research
Read the full report
The full report can be found here.
