With 16 and 17-year-olds in England to be allowed to vote for the first time in the next General Election, students are keen to know more about how things work…
The recent annual International Day of Democracy (15th September) gave us the opportunity to think about why democracy is important and what we need to do to ensure we keep it alive.
For schools, it’s also a useful prompt to look at how and whether learning about politics and democracy features in the classroom and how confident staff are teaching about how it functions.
Some 16 and 17-year-olds in the UK can already vote. In 2015, Scotland lowered the voting age to 16 for the Scottish parliamentary and local elections, and Wales followed for its council elections in 2020 and the Senedd in 2021. There are plans to lower the voting age in Northern Ireland for the Northern Ireland Assembly election, although this may not be in place before the next one in 2027.
Outside of the UK, countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Austria Indonesia and Nepal already allow 16-year-olds to vote in elections, including national ones – and several other European countries allow it in local or regional contests. For England, this will be the first time it will happen in a general election, so the onus is on schools to ensure students are receiving at least some political education before they go to the polling station.
The politics gap
According to the Electoral Commission’s most recent youth research, “81% of young people see living in a democracy as important”. Alongside this, 78% think politics should be taught more at school. Politics A-level had the largest increase in entries in 2026, but for under 18s, just 30% said they’d been taught about it in the past year. So, there appears to be a gap where there is definite interest but not enough learning available.
The interest in political knowledge is largely driven by social media, which is where most young people get their information and where both real and fake political content are widespread. In fact, 48% of young people said they encounter fake politics posts most weeks, and 67% worry what effect fake news has more widely. But how are they supposed to know what’s right and what isn’t if they don’t know how the mechanics of politics and democracy work in their country?
AI-generated content comprising convincing fake videos and articles written to mimic legitimate news outlets is now part of the daily digital environment. It’s often hard to spot these and even harder to fact-check them independently. It’s why media literacy is so critical to equip students with practical skills to not just recognise fake content but also query a claim or track back to the source to verify its legitimacy. These are core skills in today’s online world, but, according to the research, it seems that lots of young people are having to try to cut through the real vs fake issue before they can then try to make sense political information – on their own.
Why schools and teachers may hold back
A benchmark of trustworthy political knowledge to work from would be ideal for all secondary-age students, especially as it’s a backdrop to life. The stumbling block is that citizenship isn’t a compulsory subject in every school and that means that some students may miss out.
Citizenship has been a statutory National Curriculum subject at Key Stage 3 and 4 in England’s local authority maintained schools since 2002, meaning they are legally required to teach it. Academies and free schools, however, can choose whether they wish to or not – and, between them, they now make up the majority of secondary schools in England. Ofsted expects these schools to offer a curriculum of “similar breadth” but, as that is an imprecise term, provision can vary. This explains why politics education can be a bit of a lucky dip, with students receiving it or not, depending on the type of school they attend.
Teacher confidence is another issue, with recent research from Only For Teachers revealing that 50% had had ‘no training through ITT or CPD to teach politics objectively’ – and 50% only felt ‘somewhat confident’ to lead political discourse in the classroom according to DfE impartiality rules.
And it’s a valid point. Political conversations in the current climate can feel like a minefield – after all, no teacher wants to be accused of pushing an agenda. But avoiding political discussion in school means students lose out because it’s a place and a forum where such discussion can actually be impartial, away from the strong views of peers or family members.
Resources for schools
To move forward with teaching about politics and democracy, teachers don’t have to build a programme of political resources from scratch. The Electoral Commission has lots of free, politically impartial resources specifically designed for schools that include lesson plans, short 5 to 15-minute activities, assemblies and animated videos – all differentiated for different age groups and curriculums across the UK.
The feedback from educators who used the Electoral Commission’s dedicated training and resources as part of ‘Welcome to Your Vote’ week in 2025 indicated that they felt more confident and better equipped to handle political conversations in the classroom. The Commission also reported that many students also feel more confident having information to help them understand the implications of voting for the first time.
Welcome to your vote week 2027
To get ahead with helping young students to learn about democracy, politics and voting before the next general election, schools can already sign up to the Electoral Commission’s Welcome to Your Vote week 2027, which applies across the whole of the UK.
By signing up, schools will receive free resources ahead of time to better help students understand politics and democracy so they understand the power of their vote, and are prepared and able to play a more active part in their own futures.
Access school-specific resources from the Electoral Commission here
