THE UK Government has sent resources intended to teach children about King Charles’s coronation and the role of the monarchy in the UK to councils across Scotland.
Despite education being devolved, the Tory government’s Department for Education has also sent the materials to councils across Wales as part of a reported push to get more young people to take an interest in the royals and the coronation.
Graham Smith, the CEO of the campaign group Republic, told The National the lessons would be “more about preaching than they are about teaching”.
Smith said reports that the education materials had been sent to Buckingham Palace for approval made it “worse”, adding: “They should not be channeling their PR through our education system.”
It is understood that both the Scottish and Welsh governments will be taking a neutral position, allowing schools and local councils to decide whether or not to use the UK Government-issued resources.
Both devolved governments suggested in their statements that they had not been involved in the Department for Education’s distribution plans.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The UK Government has developed coronation material and distributed it to Scottish local authorities to share with schools.
“It is for schools themselves to take decisions about what resources they use to support their own learners.”
And a Welsh Government spokesperson told The National: “We are aware that [the Department for Education] is distributing resources on the coronation to local authorities. It is a matter for the local authorities.”
It comes as Professor John Curtice, one of the UK’s foremost polling experts, said that support for the royals is at an “all time low” with younger people “particularly less likely to be keen on the monarchy” than they historically have been.
Nick Gibb, a Tory schools minister, told GB News that the lesson plans had been developed because young people “need to understand really how important [the monarchy] is in terms of the way our country is governed”.
He further said it was “important” that children understood “all the symbolism that comes with the coronation”.
Gibb, the brother of BBC board member for England Robbie Gibb, said the lessons were not an attempt to make children monarchists, but to help them “understand the facts and then they can form their own opinions”.
Ahead of King Charles being officially crowned on May 6, polling from YouGov has suggested that 75% of Brits under the age of 25 do not care about the coronation, compared to 18% who say they do.
In the 25-49 age group, 69% of people said they do not care about the event, while 27% said they do.
Among the over 65s, there is a much nearer split. Some 53% of people in that age group said they do not care about the coronation, while 46% said they do.
Smith said the polling showed the divide in attitudes about the royals was “growing into a chasm”.
He said the education resources sent to councils “suggest that they are worried about the fall in support [for the monarchy], particularly among younger people”.
“But this is a completely inappropriate way to respond to that … because it is a political issue and schools have to maintain political impartiality in the way they teach issues,” Smith told The National.
The Department of Education’s decision to send lessons on the monarchy to councils in Scotland and Wales follows a similar row in 2022 over a book about the late Queen’s jubilee.
The Welsh Government thought the jubilee book, targeted at primary school children, was too Anglocentric and out of touch with the reality of devolution, according to one source at the time.
The book – which was pitched as a way to “help children understand how the four nations came together as one United Kingdom” – did contain lines such as: “The UK is made up of four nations, including England, where we live.”
Wales decided to only distribute it on an opt-in basis and in Scotland a similar decision was made, leaving the choice of whether or not to give children the book down to schools.
