This is Part 2 of a six-part series on the topic of “Education Subjugation”. Part 1, “Covid Lockdowns, Children Lost from Education and 21st Century Schools”, can be found here.
The minds of successive generations of our children have been stolen and indoctrinated in the principles of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Agenda. The Covid lockdowns provided a valuable distraction. Whilst attention was focussed elsewhere, the UN and its agencies were stealthily introducing education reform with assistance from Welsh Government.
In 2002, the UN General Assembly declared the years from 2005–2014 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). This was a call for governments to integrate the principles of Sustainable Development into their educational strategies and action plans.
In 2014, the DESD ended and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) launched the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. This ran for five years (2015-2019). This global action programme was introduced during the Unesco World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from 10-12 November 2014. In signing the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development, the participants invited governments of Unesco Member States to make further efforts to ‘allocate and mobilise substantial resources to translate policies into actions, especially building necessary institutional capacities for both formal and non-formal education and learning at national and sub-national levels’.
The 2019 UN General Assembly resolution 74/223 ‘encourages governments to increase efforts to systemically integrate and institutionalise education for sustainable development in the education sector and other relevant sectors’. And at the 206th Unesco Executive Board meeting in Paris on 20 February 2019, a new framework, Education for Sustainable Development 2030, was adopted.
In 2020, Unesco published Education for Sustainable Development: a Roadmap under the banner “#ESDfor2030”. The executive summary indicated that the intentions were to ‘set out clearly what Member States must do [emphasis added] in relation to each priority action’. Unesco also makes it clear that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) ‘is recognized as a key enabler of all SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] and achieves its purpose by transforming society’ [emphasis added].
It continues: 'ESD must focus on the big transformation that is needed for sustainable development and provide relevant educational interventions. The idea of big transformation implies changes in individual action intertwined with reorganization of societal structures’.
Unesco illustrates just how keen it is in relation to transforming education. It states: ‘Given the fact there is very little time left to achieve the SDGs, it is crucial to accelerate ESD in the decade of action to deliver the Goals … ESD can accelerate the transition to green technologies through equipping people with the required green skills’.
The ESD Roadmap identifies five priority action areas. These are:
- Advancing policy.
- Transforming the learning environments.
- Building capacities of educators.
- Empowering and mobilising youth.
- Accelerating local level actions.
We will briefly examine each of these action areas in turn.
Advancing Policy
The main actors are policymakers at institutional, local, national, regional and global levels; particularly Ministries of Education. Suggested actions include: education policy makers integrating ESD into education policies, including those that concern learning environments, curricula, teacher education, and student assessment; these are always to be acted upon with a gender perspective in mind.
Transforming the Learning Environment
Unesco’s roadmap states:
'To encourage learners to become change agents [emphasis added] who have the knowledge, means, willingness and courage to take transformative action for sustainable development, learning institutions need, themselves, to be transformed. The entire learning institution needs to be aligned with sustainable development principles, so that learning content and its pedagogies are reinforced by the way facilities are managed and how decisions are made within the institution. This whole-institution approach to ESD calls for learning environments where learners learn what they live and live what they learn.'
The main actors are leaders of learning institutions, including school principals, presidents and rectors of universities and colleges, and staff training centres in private companies.
Suggested actions include:
‘developing concrete timebound plans on how to implement the whole institution approach to ESD … engage the local community as a valuable setting for interdisciplinary project-based learning and action for sustainability’.
Building Capacities of Educators
The main actors are leaders and staff at teacher colleges at all education levels. Suggested actions include:
‘systematic and comprehensive ESD capacity development in pre-service and in-service training and assessment of teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education including adult education … Educators should be facilitators who guide learners through this transformation…Educators can employ innovative pedagogies to empower learners to become change agents’ [emphasis added].
Empowering and Mobilising Youth
Main actors include youth across the world, youth focussed groups, organisations and network, decision makers, community actors, parents and families.
Suggested actions:
‘Young people could use online communities and other communication channels to share messages on the urgency of the sustainability challenges, advocate for the inclusion of ESD in education settings they are in, empower themselves and take action for societal transformation’ [emphasis added].
Accelerating Local Level Actions
Main actors include local public authorities, including municipal governments, city councils and education offices as well as policymakers at national and regional level. Civil society organisations, private companies and media in the community [emphasis added].
Suggested actions include the development of:
‘an action plan on how the whole community can become a learning laboratory for sustainable development and an important element of ESD for 2030 country initiatives … provide capacity development for local decision makers and opinion leaders as well as for the wider public’.
According to Unesco:
'ESD is also part of various other international agreements concerned with sustainable development, such as the three ‘Rio Conventions’ (on climate change, biodiversity and desertification), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (2012-2021) [emphasis added], among others’.
Unesco UK
The United Kingdom National Commission for Unesco (UKNC) is the focal point for all Unesco related matters in the UK and a constitutional part of the UK’s membership of Unesco. ‘An independent, not-for-profit organisation, UKNC is one of a network of around 200 national commissions for Unesco around the world … the central hub for all Unesco-related matters within the UK’.
The range of this organisation’s activities include:
‘media literacy and the safety of journalists, protecting cultural heritage, gender equality, facilitating international cooperation in science to driving forward and monitoring the Education 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets’ [emphasis added].
The Unesco board of non-executive directors is appointed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
What a tangled web is weaved for the UK public to be deceived.
How Much Influence Do Agencies of the United Nations Have in the UK?
In September 2021, a press release of the United Nations agency for children (Unicef) highlighted the fact that ‘Schoolchildren around the world have lost an estimated 1.8 trillion hours – and counting – of in-person learning since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns’. According to Unicef:
‘Globally, around 131 million schoolchildren in 11 countries have missed three-quarters of their in-person learning from March 2020 to September 2021. Among them, 59 per cent – or nearly 77 million – have missed almost all in-person instruction time’.
At that time, Unicef urged ‘governments, local authorities, and school administrations to reopen schools as soon as possible taking the following mitigating steps against virus transmission’:
- Implementing mask policies for students and staff.
- Providing handwashing facilities/hand sanitiser.
- Keeping students and teachers in small groups that do not mix.
- Staggering start, break, bathroom, meals and end time, and alternating physical presence.
- Teachers should be prioritised to receive the Covid vaccine, after frontline health workers and those most at risk.
In addition, Unesco, Unicef, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Bank issued the Framework for School Reopening to provide practical and flexible advice for national and local governments and aid their efforts to return students to in-person learning. The supplement to the Framework of School Reopening provided examples from around the world of how countries were managing the process of school reopening.
The measures that Unesco and other United Nations entities suggested in relation to virus mitigation was not without criticism. For example, Montgomery Toms eloquently outlined his personal experiences of profound psychological abuse as a teenage schoolboy during covid lockdowns in his recent discussion with Charles Malet of UK Column.
In the previous article in this series, I asked: ‘Could external actors influence re-drafting of the school curriculum’?
Curriculum in Transformation Mode
Another important area where we found strong Unesco influence within the UK is the new School Curriculum for Wales.
On 20 October 2023, Unesco published an article called ‘Curriculum in Transformation Mode’ within which it was stated: ‘At the heart of this educational transformation lies the curriculum. It serves as a critical foundation for shaping educational objectives and the associated course content, playing a pivotal role in the development of education policy`.
Within this article, Unesco references the following 186-page book Reimagining Our Futures Together: a New Social Contract for Education by the Commission on the Futures of Education (2021). Unesco established The International Commission on the Futures of Education in 2019.
UK Mainstream Media Silent in Relation to the Transformation of the UK’s Education System
As is their usual practice, the mainstream UK media remained silent and failed to inform the UK public of international events which have a major local impact.
For example, the launch of the Unesco Futures of Education report took place in Paris in 2021. Between 2-4 December 2024, Unesco held an International Forum on the Futures of Education (Renewing the Social Contract for Education), in the Republic of Korea. Unesco’s intention was to ‘provide a platform through which Member States and the global community can strengthen dialogue in relation to the Futures of Education initiative’, their ultimate aim being to ‘transform’ education in line with the recommendations of the report of the 2021 International Commission on the Futures of Education. The following narrative provides the reader with a flavour of the mind-set of the report authors:
'[O]ur rapidly changing climate and planetary conditions require curricula that reorient the place of humans in the world. Irreversible planetary changes are already accelerating, and education must foster appreciation for the inherent interconnectedness of environmental, societal and economic well-being. Curricula must draw from diverse forms of knowledge, preparing students and communities to adapt to, mitigate, and reverse climate change in a way that sees humans as inextricably interconnected with a more-than-human world’.
Reimagining Our Futures Together: a New Social Contract for Education
In calling for an ‘intensive, dialogue-driven collaboration among different institutions and stakeholders’, Unesco points out that ‘to foster a reimagined curriculum, we must shift our perspective from a mere collection of disconnected learning materials to a dynamic process influenced by public policies’. This prompts the question: would children no longer be taught traditional subjects such as English, Maths, History, or Geography?
The New Curriculum for Wales
The Welsh Government has a past history of importing global policy into the Welsh landscape. For example, speaking in January 2009, Jane Hutt, Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning, said:
‘Climate change, poverty, conflict and consumer pressure are all part of our world today. Education for Sustainable Development & Global Citizenship (ESDGC) seeks to find ways to raise awareness and action to address the consequences of our lifestyle choices and prepares us for sustainable living in the 21st century as global citizens’.
The above quote is taken from Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship, Information document no: 106/2012, which was published in March 2012. The audience for this guidance document was ‘training providers, tutors, trainers and adult learners’.
In 2015, the Welsh Government introduced the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.
This Act gives a ‘legally-binding common purpose’ [emphasis added] and is formulated upon the Sustainable Development Principles. It directs that public bodies ‘need to make sure that when making their decisions they take into account the impact they could have on people living their lives in Wales in the future’. It also created the Orwellian-sounding Future Generations Commissioner for Wales whose ‘role is to be the guardian of future generations’.
With this historical background, the Welsh Government would naturally be keen to import global policy into the primary and secondary education sector. In Part 1 of this series, we have already seen how the Welsh Government directed enormous sums of capital into their 21st century schools rebuilding and refurbishment programme. No doubt similar levels of energy would be applied to the remodelling of the new school curriculum.
The New Curriculum for Wales
In October 2020, Kirsty Williams MS, Minister for Education of the Welsh Government, said:
‘Alongside the update of Our National Mission, I am also publishing “Curriculum for Wales: the journey to 2022”. This sets out shared expectations of what curriculum realisation means for practitioners, schools and settings from 2022. It aims to help schools to prepare for designing and implementing their curriculum’.
The publication of “Curriculum for Wales: The Journey to 2022” in October 2020 set out the expectations for schools and settings to design their curriculum. Appendix C provides readers with ‘a timeline for National Network conversations’. For example:
Spring 2021: Initial engagement through series of conversations with practitioners.
Summer 2021: Agreeing priorities for longer-term conversations with the core group of practitioners, prioritisation of key conversations.
September 2021 onwards: Detailed conversations on specific topics informed by the key challenges and priorities for implementation, including under key themes such as:
- Design principles for curriculum.
- Co-construction and building understanding.
- Detailed curriculum structure and content.
These Welsh Government-driven conversations sound very much like the ‘intensive, dialogue-driven collaboration among different institutions and stakeholders’ proposed by Unesco.
Furthermore, does this revised curriculum for Wales fit with the Unesco vision that to create ‘a reimagined curriculum, we must shift our perspective from a mere collection of disconnected learning materials to a dynamic process influenced by public policies’?
At the heart of the new curriculum are four purposes. These are:
- Ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives.
- Enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work.
- Ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.
- Healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
A major shift in how education will be delivered following implementation of the new curriculum is that traditional boundaries between subjects are scrapped. For secondary schools, this means instead of separate subjects there will be six areas of learning and experience’ (AoLEs). The six AoLEs are: Expressive arts, Health and Well-being, Humanities, Languages, Literacy and Communication, Mathematics and Numeracy, and Science and Technology.
Drilling down a little deeper, we find that the Humanities AoLE ‘encompasses geography; history; religion, values and ethics; business studies and social studies’. This area ‘encourages learners to engage with the most important issues facing humanity, including sustainability and social change’. The classics, economics, law, philosophy, politics, psychology and sociology might also be introduced into this area of learning.
Relationships and sexuality education (RSE) is a statutory requirement in the Curriculum for Wales framework and is mandatory for all learners from ages 3 to 16. The guidance states:
‘Teaching and learning in RSE should be supported by a whole-school approach to RSE and this is critical in supporting learners’ well-being. This means effectively linking all aspects of school, including the curriculum, policy, staff, school environment and community to support learners in their relationships and sexuality education’.
This subject area should be discussed ‘in the context of children’s rights as protected by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).’ In addition, RSE learning will be ‘inclusive in accordance with the principles of equality’. Naturally, this includes ‘gender equity and lesbian, gay, bisexual/bi, transgender/trans people, queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) inclusivity.
Implementation of the New Curriculum for Wales
According to the guidance, ‘Secondary schools that chose to introduce the Curriculum to Year 7 early did so in September 2022, with the curriculum being mandatory for Years 7 and 8 from September 2023’.
The New Curriculum for Wales in Llantwit Major High School
This school’s website has a page dedicated to the new Curriculum for Wales. It provides links to separate guides for parents and young persons. Two videos are embedded into the webpage. The first features schoolchildren explaining the new Curriculum for Wales. The second features learners celebrating diversity. In March 2023, the school published an 18-page information guide about the new Curriculum for Wales in Llantwit Major School. This mirrors the six AoLEs we briefly examined earlier.
Education Reforms in Wales Not Without Criticism
An opinion piece called “Have Teachers in Wales Been Rebranded by the Welsh Government?”, written by Finola Wilson, Director of Impact Wales, an education company that works with schools and teachers across the UK, raises a significant issue.
Firstly, she points out that Welsh Government released guidance included a section entitled ‘Enabling learning’ which made no mention of teachers at all, but instead refers to ‘enabling adults’, whose role would be ‘fundamental’ to supporting learners ‘during this important phase of their development’.
Wilson also states that there is ‘an overwhelming body of robust international research that shows more directed teaching … supports better outcomes for pupils’.
This new pedagogy approach, where education is learner-driven, instead of being teacher-led, would represent a significant change to teaching practice in Wales.
Explosive Report Finds Falling Educational Standards in Wales and Blames Welsh Government Education Reforms
A report called Major Challenges for Education in Wales, published in March 2024 by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, makes sobering reading.
Firstly, it says that Wales’ ‘low Pisa scores are ‘a major concern and challenge for the new First Minister’. It recommends that ‘policymakers and educators in Wales should pause, and in some cases rethink, past and ongoing reforms’.
Secondly, this report acknowledges that education policy in Wales has diverged from England. Whilst the ‘Curriculum for Wales aims to develop general skills and defines four key purposes’, the ‘National Curriculum in England is entirely different’. The most ‘recent version was implemented from 2014 onwards and focuses on whether pupils have specific elements of knowledge’.
The author points out that ‘there is no good evidence showing that a skills based curriculum will be able to turn around low scores and high inequalities seen in Wales’.
Additionally, ‘faced with this gloomy picture policymakers should have the courage to make reforms based on solid evidence such as increasing the emphasis on specific knowledge in the curriculum and making better use of data to shine a spotlight on inequalities throughout the system. Without reform the picture may worsen’.
Perhaps most concerning is the finding that since Wales education policy diverged ‘the performance of disadvantaged children in England is either above or similar to the average for all children in Wales’.
The evidence we have examined makes it difficult for us not to conclude that this ‘dumbing down’ of educational standards in Wales is anything other than deliberate.
