GCSE students are being taught that it is their civic duty not to offend

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

8 May 2026

It has been revealed by The Telegraph that students are now being taught that it is their civic duty not to offend anyone.

The exam board Pearson Edexcel is taking a hammering after its GCSE revision guide for citizenship studies was shown to state that Britons have a responsibility "to use freedom of speech but not offend."

The book is designed to help 16-year-old students prepare for their GCSE in citizenship studies — a subject taken by just under 21,000 pupils in England in 2025. Citizenship has been framed as a central aim of the Labour Government's education strategy, with lessons in the subject being made mandatory for primary school pupils.

Concerningly — but unsurprisingly — the guide goes on to state that "freedom of speech may be misused to promote extremist views", adding in a rather sinister and counterintuitive way that "this should be limited so it protects rights and does not discriminate against others."

The textbook has drawn stark criticism from a number of figures, including Shadow Education Secretary and Conservative MP Laura Trott, who said: "It's utterly wrong-headed to teach children they have a right not to be offended. Schools should be places where ideas are tested and debated, not repressed. Labour wants to double down on more citizenship in our schools. We need less ideology and more focus on the core skills that equip children for life beyond the classroom, not wrap them in cotton wool."

In a time when people increasingly look to be offended, guidance like this will only add fuel to the hypersensitivity problem we already face both inside and outside the classroom. The decision of an exam board to promote resources such as this is whipping up an already toxic trend of cancel culture in education — one that will lead to the silencing of students and their views, and fuel self-censorship among pupils.

The General Secretary and founder of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, told The Telegraph: "This revision guide is encouraging children to cancel their classmates for saying something they find offensive. It's whipping up cancel culture in schools. If children are being taught in school that the right to free speech doesn't include the right to be offensive, God help us."

Lord Young also pointed to the wise words of Lord Justice Sedley: "Free speech includes not only the inoffensive, but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative, provided it does not tend to promote violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having."

Since coming to power in July 2024, Labour has faced a wave of criticism for its failure to protect and promote free speech in schools and universities. In one of her first acts as Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson paused implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 — only to partially reverse course after the Free Speech Union threatened judicial review.

Phillipson has since announced that she will implement the long-awaited complaints scheme for academics, university staff, and visiting speakers, allowing them to take complaints about violations of their speech rights directly to the Office for Students, free of charge.Universities will also face fines of up to £500,000 from next year should they fail to uphold freedom of speech on campus.

What remains deeply disappointing is that students are not eligible to use the complaints scheme — a promise made under the previous government. Students will still face potential financial ruin should they wish to stand up for their speech rights.There is still much to do in the fight for free speech on campus.

The textbook — again unsurprisingly — states that providing lavatories only for men and women constitutes "discrimination", and that "human rights come ahead of the right of a country to conduct its own affairs." The guidance appears to show a complete disregard for the 2024 Cass Review, which found there should be "no exceptions" for single-sex facilities in schools and colleges.

Rather than produce a textbook to help pupils pass an exam, Pearson Edexcel appears to have created its own woke manifesto — one that undermines freedom of speech in the very institutions where it should be most vigorously defended.

Read more in The Telegraph.