The Ulster Unionist Party is calling for the immediate withdrawal of the teaching guide published by the Northern Ireland Curriculum to accompany the book Bog Child. The notes are available to all Key Stage 3 pupils, aged between 11 and 14.
The guide encourages children to study the Republican Hunger Strikes of 1981, challenging children to put themselves in the shoes of Bobby Sands, to treat the writings of Sinn Fein’s Chief Propagandist Danny Morrison as “factual writing”, and to accept children felt shame that their fathers worked as prison warders.
Ulster Unionist Leader, Mike Nesbitt MLA, said: “Let me be clear, this is not an attack on the book. I have not read Bog Child, so have no opinion on its value as a piece of literature. But I have read the teaching notes, as endorsed by the Department of Education and I am stunned by what I read.
“There is no agreement on how the Troubles should be taught to our young children. This one-sided piecemeal approach is an outrage.
“These pupils are 11 to 14 years of age, so have no first-hand experience the Troubles. How we teach that history will shape, or in this case, warp, their minds forever. I have been vocal in warning that Sinn Fein wish to re-write history. They clearly see education as a means to achieve that through what can only be described as social engineering. Here we have the proof.
“How dare the Department of Education ask pupils to put themselves in the shoes of hunger strikers! What about the shoes of the prison warders who had to carry out their jobs during dirty protests and hunger strikes, constantly having to endure the whispered death threats from inmates directed at their wives and children? What about the prison officers who were murdered?
“One of the many shocking aspects of this official teaching aid is the "testimonies", allegedly from people who lived through the Troubles, one of which quotes an unnamed source as expressing how she "often felt deeply ashamed" that her father was a warden in the Maze Prison. The Department of Education uses one unnamed source to try to discredit the prison staff population!
“This is utterly, despicably one-sided in its treatment. I encourage every parent to visit the NI Curriculum website and read those testimonies, to appreciate how the educational authorities are encouraging the next generations to view the police, UDR and prison staff as bad, sectarian people, and those of us who consider ourselves to be British to be the proper subject matter for laughter and ridicule.
“This is no laughing matter. Nor is it a minor issue to be swept aside with an arrogant “So what?”
It is evidence of the worst kind of politicisation of the classroom under Sinn Fein's direction. And such bias!
“Pupils are encouraged to study “factual writing” of the day, yet the first name suggested is not one of the many respected journalists who covered the Troubles, it is Danny Morrison, who came up with the infamous phrase “an armalite in one hand and a ballot paper in the other.”
It beggars belief! And it must be stopped. This book and the related teaching guidance should be removed from Northern Ireland Curriculum immediately. Then an independent review of curriculum content must be instigated forthwith.
The way in which this has slipped into mainstream education shows why there has to be an end to the Stormont “silo” mentality. Otherwise it calls into question the whole functionality of the Executive. Education is the Ulster Unionist Party`s number one priority and as stated before, we want to take control of the Education Department. We will not allow our childrens` education to be corrupted by Provo ideology. We would ask the DUP and others to give us their full support.
Jo-Anne Dobson, Ulster Unionist MLA for Upper Bann and a member of the Education Committee said,
“I was contacted by a parent who expressed his utter disgust that his young son had been sent home from school to write an essay on Bobby Sands for his English class.
“The suggested lesson content, which includes asking 11 to 14 year old pupils to ‘put themselves in the shoes’ of the hunger strikers and to read the‘factual’ accounts of Bobby Sands, is completely unacceptable.
“The book itself may well be award winning, but this is to miss the point, which is how teachers are directed to encourage pupils to study the Hunger Strikes in a sympathetic, subjective manner.
“If this book can make its way onto the curriculum under the present education system we can be in little doubt that a single education authority controlled by Sinn Fein would yield more of the same. This is what is envisaged under the proposed Education Bill which The Ulster Unionist Party will continue to oppose at Stormont. This recent revelation will further strengthen our resolve.
“No doubt John O’Dowd’s response will be another resounding ‘So What.’ However if Sinn Fein’s idea of a ‘shared future’ for Northern Ireland is to teach our young children about the reprehensible acts of murderers whilst at the same time attempting to re-write history, then they are callously ignoring the very principle of sharing.”
Note to Editors:
This is the link to ni curriculum website which contains the teaching guide
http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/docs/key_stage_3/areas_of_learning/english/Bog%20Child_web.pdf