Give lessons on voting at 11, says head of Electoral Commission

Schools will need to give democracy lessons to children from the age of 11 and ask teachers to leave their politics at the classroom door to help prepare for votes at 16, the head of the elections watchdog has said.

- Rowena Mason

Vijay Rangarajan, the chief executive of the Electoral Commission, said democratic education would be rolled out at first to those aged over 14 in preparation for votes at 16 at the next election. But he said this would ultimately need to start at age 11.

The Electoral Commission is preparing material for schools to help with democratic education. In an interview with the Guardian, Rangarajan said a huge amount of work was going into the citizenship material to make it impartial, and said schools and teachers have a role in making sure they do not attempt to sway students in how to vote.

"We're going to need teachers to be really good at leaving their own personal views a bit at the door here," he said. "And making clear, when they have got personal views, it's just personal views."

Rangarajan said teachers "will need really good materials and some guidance on how you can teach this stuff well" with debates about engaging with political issues, as well as the mechanics of how the system works.