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The head of the Electoral Commission reckons 16- and 17-year-olds don’t know enough about democracy to cast an informed vote, so schools should start teaching children about it from the age of 11.

That seems sensible enough. Except… citizenship is already on the curriculum. Has been since 2002. Who knew?

Not Vijay Rangarajan, apparently. And this is the head of the Electoral Commission?

The problem is that citizenship is treated as the unwanted guest at the educational dinner table – pushed to the margins, handed off to non-specialist teachers, and often squeezed out altogether by “more important” subjects.

It’s no surprise, then, that according to a Teacher Tapp poll, more than 80 per cent of teachers think the current curriculum doesn’t prepare pupils for voting at 16.

So what’s really going on here?

Is it neglect? Is it because citizenship education is supposed to be “neutral” – and nobody can agree what neutrality means?

If a teacher so much as hints at their own political view, they’re accused of bias.

But even deciding what counts as essential knowledge is political in itself.

That’s why politicians from all sides cry foul and claim the system favours their opponents.

And here’s the really uncomfortable question: does keeping politics vague and toothless in schools actually suit the people in power? An uninformed electorate is an easier electorate to manage – right?

The irony is that when young people are trusted with responsibility, they rise to it.

Scotland’s independence referendum showed 16- and 17-year-olds not only wanted to take part, they turned out in high numbers – and often knew more about the issues than their elders.

Austria and Wales have seen similar results: start young, and voting becomes a habit for life.

But modern politics isn’t just about turning up at a polling station.

It’s about navigating disinformation, spotting manipulation online, understanding who funds what, and recognising when candidates are being attacked not for their policies but because of their gender or ethnicity.

If young people aren’t given the tools to see through that, we’re sending them into the democratic arena unarmed.

So ultimately we need to ask ourselves: what do young people need to know about politics?

At the very least, they need a clear grasp of how Parliament works, how laws are made, how to register and vote, how parties are funded, and how to tell fact from fakery online.

And maybe we should ask them what else they need to know.

Over to you: if you were designing a real, useful citizenship curriculum – one that prepared every 16-year-old to vote confidently and critically – what would you put on it?

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