According to curriculum guidelines from the school support organisation The Key, The British Empire should be taught to school pupils like Nazi Germany, the Telegraph reports.
The Key works with teachers to ensure the history curriculum is sufficiently “anti-racist”, advising teachers to present the British Empire akin to Nazi Germany as a power that “committed atrocities”. The Telegraph report continues:
Importantly, the guidance states that pupils should also not be taught about the balance of “good and bad” aspects of the Empire.
It is worth noting that the British Empire spanned 400 years, during which slavery was both practised and campaigned against. In contrast, the Nazi regime lasted from 1933 to 1945, instigating a global war which cost the lives of 75 million, including six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
The “anti-racism curriculum review” guidance was created by The Key. This organisation initially began as a government pilot. However, it now provides teaching resources to more than 100,000 school leaders.
The Key’s teaching guide works as a series of prompts, to which answers are provided.
If the British Empire is taught impartially, while other topics are not, teachers are advised to “re-frame” the subject.
The Guidance encourages educators to “teach colonialism as ‘invading and exploiting’ other countries, and present the British Empire as you would other global powers that committed atrocities, e.g. Nazi Germany”.
It adds that staff should “avoid presenting the British Empire as an equal balance of good and bad”, explaining: “The problem with the ‘balance sheet’ model is that the beneficiaries of Empire were one group of people (i.e. the colonisers) and the losers were those who were colonised.”
To increase diversity on curricula, teachers are also encouraged to celebrate “Caribbean, African and Indian soldiers who fought for Britain in both World Wars”. Interestingly, these conflicts were fought when Britain was still a colonial power – a contradiction The Key’s guidance does not seem to have reckoned with.
This guidance is available to a great many school leaders. In fact, The Key claims to be “the leading provider of support for schools and trusts” and “trusted by over half of all schools in England”.
Its guidance, which was first made available to schools in 2022, has been presented as an example of best practice to school staff by councils in West Sussex and East Renfrewshire.
The Key also offers advice on how to make the history curricula anti-racist, advising teachers to avoid “‘white saviour narratives’”, which may include a “focus on white abolitionists such as William Wilberforce”.
Furthermore, to address how black people are “overwhelmingly presented as victims of history”, the guidance advises teachers to educate pupils about “contributions and achievements” of figures like Crimean War nurse Mary Seacole, and the Oba of Benin.
According to the Telegraph, The Oba ruled the Kingdom of Benin, which generated wealth through the sale of African slaves.
Contributing to this biased presentation, teachers are also told: “Don’t ignore the racism of historical figures such as Winston Churchill or the prejudices against black people expressed by Mahatma Gandhi – be upfront about their problematic views and the historical context that allowed them to go unchallenged.”
The guidance has triggered concern among leading historians. Prof Robert Tombs, the Cambridge academic and author, branded the document “blatant propaganda”.
He said: “To assert that the British Empire benefited only the British and only did damage to the colonised is absurd.
“Nothing is said about economic development; nothing about how the Empire suppressed slavery; nothing about peacekeeping and the ending of chronic violence.
“It is a glaring self-contradiction that the document compares the Empire to Nazi Germany and yet wishes to celebrate the many colonial soldiers who voluntarily fought for the Empire.
“It is astonishing that schools are urged to celebrate the ‘contribution and achievements’ of the Oba of Benin, a slave trader on a vast scale. This can only be bad faith or ignorance.
“Almost inevitably, the document accuses Churchill of racism – a baseless accusation. This whole document at best aims at myth-making, at worst aims at creating unfounded resentment and division.”
Dr Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, author and director of the group Don’t Divide Us, which has long campaigned for political impartiality in education, said: “The idea that Britain was a global power akin to the Nazis is a particularly radical socio-cultural belief held by a minority of people for whom the British nation in particular can only be a source of moral sin and political depredation.”
