In June, the newly established Current Affairs Education Commission held its inaugural meeting at The Economist’s office to tackle one of the most pressing challenges facing modern education: how we equip young people to navigate a fast-changing, AI-shaped information environment. Brought together by The Economist Educational Foundation, the Commission aims to drive systemic change at a national level.
Key themes from the meeting
During this first meeting, commissioners explored several critical areas shaping the landscape of current affairs education today:
- Young people today have unprecedented access to information, but it is frequently scary, inappropriate, or stripped of context, leaving a profound shortage of safe, structured spaces for them to digest this information, ask questions, and think critically.
- Opportunities to build this vital cultural capital are currently not distributed equitably, and the Commission is focused on reframing current affairs education as an absolute entitlement for all pupils rather than an optional privilege.
- Only 1% of teachers feel fully prepared to teach political and media literacy, but England’s new national curriculum and recent independent reviews present a massive opportunity to root these pedagogies firmly into schools. However, schools need support in finding the space to embed current affairs education in a crowded curriculum.
- Engaging with live, contested, and real-world issues helps build the “muscle” required to listen respectfully, test ideas, and combat societal polarisation and misinformation.
Publishing Our Evidence and Practice Review
To ground the Commission’s work in robust research, we are proud to formally publish The Current Affairs Education Commission – Evidence and Practice Review. This comprehensive review examines international best practices, highlighting leading models in countries like Finland, Denmark, and Sweden, and synthesises academic literature on how current affairs directly fosters critical thinking and creativity.
You can download our review here.
What’s Coming Next?
The launch of the Commission is just the beginning. Moving forward, the Commission is undergoing a major research project across teachers and students in England, consisting of comprehensive surveys and focus groups.
Additionally, July will feature two expert input sessions diving deep into:
- The Current Affairs Landscape
- Critical Thinking, AI, and Current Affairs
Stay tuned as we compile these findings to affect real, systemic change with decision-makers.