Young Citizens is delighted to announce the appointment of the former schools minister, The Rt Hon. the Lord Jim Knight of Weymouth, as our new Honorary President.
He succeeds the former Lord Speaker, Baroness D’Souza, who steps down as president of the charity after four years in post.
About our new President
Lord Knight was the Labour MP for South Dorset from 1997 to 2010, serving as a minister in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet from 2009 until 2010 when he was appointed to the House of Lords.
He regularly speaks on education and technology policy and is a member of the Communications and Digital Committee in the Lords. He is a long-time campaigner for citizenship education and youth political and media literacy, sponsoring a Private Members’ Bill calling for sustainable citizenship to be embedded into the national curriculum in 2022.
Knight currently serves as non-executive chair for E-ACT Multi Academy Trust, the Council of British International Schools, Century-Tech and STEM Learning Ltd. He also sits on the Pearson Qualifications Committee and provides advice to Nord Anglia Education, the Brookings Institute, GoodNotes, Edwin Group and Everfi.
“The time for change is now”
Reflecting on his appointment, Lord Knight said: “Our institutions and education sector have the opportunity of a generation to boost youth civic engagement. With misinformation and polarisation on the rise in an increasingly complex social climate, young people’s understanding of our democracy, including politics, economics and the media, is necessary to ensure they can both contribute to and thrive in society today.
“Young Citizens is well-poised to bring about this change with nearly 40 years’ experience providing engaging content and immersive learning programmes for state schools, where active citizenship should be a rite of passage and part of the fabric of a modern British education.”
“I have admired the charity’s work since my time in government when they were paving the way for the curriculum, and I am excited to see what we can achieve together. With the imminent arrival of Votes at 16, and the Youth Shadow Curriculum and Assessment Review calling for life-relevant skills and robust citizenship in schools, the time for change is now.”
The appointment comes as new polling by More in Common shows that 46% of 16 to 17- year-olds do not feel informed about politics, while a study by the John Smith Foundation found that 42% believe politicians do not listen to young people.
A word from our Chief Executive
Young Citizens chief executive Ashley Hodges said: “We are delighted that Lord Knight is joining us as our new honorary president. He brings decades of experience in educational policy and a passion for our mission to see all young people are developed as active citizens, as an equally important measure and weight to academic and employability provision. He has campaigned tirelessly for the promotion of life skills in schools and modernising education, so we know he will be a fantastic ambassador of our work.
“At Young Citizens, we want to position children and young people as actors and leaders in their communities, instead of simply being inheritors of the world today. Too many young people and schools are under-supported in engaging with the complex societal issues of today. We need to ensure that developing our young people as citizens is as important as developing them academically. Lord Knight understands the urgency of this mission.
“On behalf of everyone at Young Citizens, I would like to thank Baroness D’Souza for her commitment to the charity and its young beneficiaries. She has been a constant source of inspiration and guidance for our organisation. We are so grateful to her for championing our work.”
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