The team tasked with designing the new national curriculum has a “deeply concerning” lack of diversity, the government has been warned.
The curriculum drafters will lead a major overhaul of England’s curriculum and assessment system, following an independent review last year.
The full list of drafters was published earlier this year by the Department for Education.
But an open letter, signed by almost 100 people, says that a “lack of visible diversity” in the group risks undermining its work.
The letter’s 96 signatories include Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, senior lecturers and representatives of leading multi-academy trusts.
It has been sent to the DfE, as well as the prime minister’s education adviser, Oli de Botton.
DfE urged to review curriculum drafters
The curriculum and assessment review, published in November, called for programmes of study to be reviewed and updated to ensure a “stronger representation of the diversity that makes up our modern society”.
Today’s letter welcomes this suggestion, but warns that it makes the “composition of the curriculum drafting groups deeply concerning”.
“The lack of visible diversity among those tasked with shaping the future curriculum risks undermining both the intent and the credibility of the process. Curriculum is not neutral,” the letter says.
It adds that, when the group responsible for decisions on content is drawn from a “narrow set of professional, cultural and lived experiences”, the curriculum that emerges “is inevitably constrained, however well-intentioned and learned the individuals involved may be”.
The new curriculum is due to be implemented in full by September 2028.
While the letter says it is not criticising the “integrity or quality” of the curriculum drafters, it calls for a “more diverse range of drafters to be involved in the development of the revised curriculum”.
A drafting group that “lacks diversity” risks reproducing “narrow canons of knowledge”, “overlooking how curriculum choices land differently across communities” and “failing to anticipate the practical and ethical challenges schools face when teaching contested histories and identities”.
The signatories recommend that the DfE:
- Reviews and broadens the composition of drafting groups as a matter of urgency.
- Ensures meaningful representation across race and ethnicity, disability, socio-economic background, phase, region and school context.
- Is transparent about selection criteria and decision-making processes.
- Engages with educators and scholars who bring lived experience alongside professional expertise.
“A national curriculum shaped by a narrow group cannot credibly claim to serve a diverse nation,” the letter says.
“If we want a curriculum that prepares young people to live, learn and belong in modern Britain, then the process of creating it must reflect that same reality.”
Application process ‘not widely publicised’
The letter also raises concerns that the tender process for appointing curriculum drafters was “exclusionary”.
For instance, the application process for the drafter role was posted online in September, before the review itself was published.
The letter argues that the opportunity to become a curriculum drafter was “not widely publicised” through common channels in the education community. It also points out the drafter role was not flexible enough for current practitioners to balance it with their teaching or leadership jobs in schools.
Drafters ‘were best fit’
The government’s had recognised “the opportunity to promote further diversity in the body of work studied at GCSE”, and said it would ensure that teachers “can reflect the innate diversity of British history, including British Black and Asian history”.
Responding to today’s letter, a DfE spokesperson said: “We are revitalising the curriculum to give every young person the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in work and life.”
The spokesperson added that the curriculum drafters were chosen “based on the best fit for the role, accounting for expertise in subject knowledge and school leadership”.
“Part of this work means ensuring that every child has access to perspectives other than their own. We plan to meet and hear from important stakeholders over the coming weeks on representation in the curriculum,” they said.
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