Citizenship, political liberalism and the national curriculumI will argue in this essay that the civic education offered in the new national curriculum subject called Citizenship is not in harmony with the educational objectives and principles set out in the Education Reform Act of 1988, in which the national curriculum itself was established. I will further argue that the current institutional arrangements for all education are contrary to the spirit of civic education expounded in Citizenship. To continue my argument, I will draw on John Rawls's view that in a modern democracy such as that of the United Kingdom, the idea of ​​a democratic state with a single generally accepted moral or religious doctrine n is more useful. In Political Liberalism, he writes about this notion: “This conception of social unity is excluded by the fact of reasonable pluralism; it is no longer a political possibility for those who accept the constraints of freedom and tolerance of democratic institutions. (p.201) He uses the notion of justice as fairness to indicate how the state can treat its citizens fairly in a pluralistic society. He defines justice as fairness in terms of two principles of justice. The first is that all people must enjoy the same political rights and freedoms. The second principle is that of equality of opportunity. Rawls then restricts the sphere of influence of these principles to that of political, social and economic institutions. He calls this position “political liberalism.” He argues that this political liberalism should be seen as an autonomous moral system applicable only to political, social and economic institutions. This is somewhat difficult to swallow, if only to know exactly how this limit... middle of paper ... applies to all students. Students do not receive the same civic education. Fourth, establishments are not freely accessible in terms of fair competition, although both systems are controlled by the state. If, therefore, equality of opportunity is indeed one of the many shared aims and values ​​which underpin the curriculum and the work of the school as the Secretary of State asserts, then I submit that neither our neither our current national program nor our current institutional arrangements are consistent with this value and that, therefore, the goals of citizenship are unlikely to be realized.BibliographyRAWLS, J. (1996) Political Liberalism, Columbia University Press, New York, Chicago, ChichesterEducation Reform Act 1988: Secretary of State's preface and opening sectionsNational Curriculum Values ​​2002Citizenship, Key Stage Curriculum 4