In the aftermath of the Recent Terrorist Attacks on Mainland Britain, the need to teach Citizenship in our schools is more urgent than ever.

IN THE aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks on British soil, where the Government acknowledged the pitfalls of its anti-extremist strategy and operational plan. the need to win over hearts and minds to our society's democratic norms and values, is more important than ever.

It's vital that we assist all young people to learn about our liberal-democracy with its place in the UK and elswhere in the world. Every young adult should have an entitlement to the opportunities to develop civic skills, knowledge and confidence to participate effectively in society as an active citizen.

Sadly, the two largest political parties only paid lip-service to education for citizenship and democracy in the run-up to the 2017 general election. Of all the manifestos published, only the Liberal-Democrats actively supported citizenship as a curriculum right. This means for the democracy civil society NGOs and both Labour and Conservative, more work needs to be done to address this issue.

Although more young people voted in greater numbers than in 2015 - 54% of 18 to 24-year olds cast a ballot in 2017 (up 11%), four out of 10 didn't especially those from white working class and BAME backgrounds. Of those abstainers quizzed by pollsters, over half felt that the democratic system doesn't work for them. They don't believe they can shape decision-making in their communities, towns or cities. And seven in 10 felt they didn' have the necessary civic knowledge to grasp the basics of democracy, participation or representation. Only 1 in ten could name their local MP!

Yet central government has neglected the obvious way to address the problem of civil disengagement. At best, schools, colleges and apprenticeship agencies are required to teach British values, including democracy and ''understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process.'' Yet there's startling evidence that it's not working as well as it should. State schools have a legal duty to deliver high quality citizenship classes. However, citizenship as a discrete subject, has been marginalised in several educational establishments. Entries for GCSE citizenship have fallen sharply in the last half decade or so, particularly in the north of England. This year AS/A2 level citizenship studies has been deleted from the post-16 curriculum.

Acording to Tom Franklin, of the non-partisan Citizenship Foundation, the number of trainee citizenship teachers has dropped from 240 in 2010 to a mere 54 in 2016. Training bursaries have been withdrawn. The growing number of schools which have become academies, UTCs and Free schools are not required to deliver citizenship. Even the regulatory watchdog, Ofsted, no longer takes much of an interest in whether they teach the subject or not, so many schools don't bother.

Our political parties have said little about education and democracy. The Conservative Party had a section in its manifesto called 'Democracy and the Rule of Law' with a commitment to 'champion British values aroud the globe.' Labour, in contrast, had a chapter on 'Extending Democracy' pledging an elcted second chamber in Parliament, votes for 16-17 year olds with a commitment to making all schools democratically acountable. The Lib-Dems in their manifesto, 'Change Britain's Future', went two steps further by promising a fairer voting system basded on PR, votes at 16, House of Lords reform and weekend voting. They re-affirmed citizenship as a curriculum entitlement in in all state funded secondary schools ansd colleges.

As Britain approaches the 100th anniversary of major electoral reform in 1918, which extended the franchise to women aged over 30 and millions of working class men, our  democratic traditions and moderate political culture is facing an unprecendented threat from religious fundamentalists, far -right, extreme left-wing and radicalised terrorists. All these groupings have a contempt for our democratic way of life, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, equality of worth and opportunity, tolerance and difference. Radical Islamists want to kill, maim and instill fear. Those on the extreme opposite ends of the political spectrum would like like Britain to be transformed into an an unaccountable 'corporate state' based on 'democratic centralism', or worse a totalitararian fascist dictatorship with the threat of genocide.

In 1988 an imporant report by the Peer Bernard Crick called for every young person on the British Isles to learn about citizenship and democracy. 30 years on there's a pressing need to roll out a national programme to raise the profile and quality of citizenship teaching to all students up to the age of 19 and give it the status as subjects like English, Maths, history, science, geography and IT. A-level citizenship studies (brought in by Education Secretary David Bluncket in 1999) should be restored to the further education curriculum. All trainees should be required to complete a citizenship certificate course. This works well in the USA and Australia so why not the Uk. Above all we need a better strategy in this Parliament by all political players to finally address the 'democratic deficit'.