Manifesto Ask: Education: Children's Rights to Access Cultural Experiences
This is Part 6 in a blog series on the Crowd-Sourced Cultural Manifesto for 2021. The culture sector has collaborated on 8 Asks in advance of the Scottish Parliament Elections in May 2021.
Education: Invest in a scheme to ensure that all children in Scotland of all ages are assured their right to regular access to a diverse range of cultural experiences.
Scotland is set to the be first country in the UK to directly incorporate UNCRC (the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) into domestic law, with the Bill introduced to Parliament in September of this year. The cultural sector applauds this move to strengthen and protect children and young people’s rights in Scotland, and reminds the next Scottish Government of the following duties under Article 31:
States Parties recognise the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.
All children should be introduced to a variety of potential hobbies, interests and potential careers. Many cultural hobbies and interests are good for our mental and physical health and children should be able to have knowledge of what the options may be.
Children should be introduced to a diverse range of cultural experiences; for example; dancers, architects, writers and archivists across a range of talks or demonstrations as part of assemblies; full theatrical productions taking place inside or outside of school and participatory experiences expanding the individuals range of expressive skills. See Arts Backpack.
This widens the perceptions and interests that children have and sparks ambitions for the future. For example: (You have to see it to be it) if a working-class child hears a talk from a working-class writer, that child then understands that s/he can be a writer. (You have to see it to be it) works across all protected characteristics; so the more diversity the better.
The cultural sector sparks imagination; access to cultural experiences will spark the imagination and ambition of children, for both their personal and potentially for their life-long professional goals.
Furthermore, the Justice sector should seriously consider the power of art (in the broadest possible sense) across all stages of its work. This includes working with at-risk young people, young people in custody, adults in prison, and also people serving community sentences. It has great potential to reach vulnerable individuals, preventing them from entering into the justice system in the first place – this focus could of course be applied in the education sector in conjunction with the justice sector.
Every school should have an annual cultural-plan; agreed in collaboration with the parent council. This enables parents to support head-teachers to bring culture into the school. Schools could submit their cultural plans to the Scottish Government via their local authority to demonstrate their compliance on children’s rights as per the requirements of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill.
You can find more information on the ‘Arts Backpack’ and feasibility studies here: https://www.childrensarts.org.uk/campaign/the-arts-backpack-uk/
Manifesto 2021
Read the Full Manifesto on our website here.
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