Moves are afoot for children to be consulted in decisions that affect them. Mary Evans hears some of the campaigners who are already giving children their say
One of the most compelling protests to hit the streets of London this spring was a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of children calling for smacking to be outlawed. Armed with banners reading, "We have rights too", they marched to Downing Street and handed in a letter to the Prime Minister calling for all physical punishment of children to be banned.
The protest was organised by Article 12, a group taking its name from Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says all children have the right to express their views and to have them taken seriously. The group, which is led by young people, campaigns on a range of issues including lowering the voting age to at least 16. Their slogan is, "We can work, raise a family, pay taxes, join the army but still no vote."
Article 12 steering committee member David Henry, age 17, from Manchester, says while there is a growing movement for young people to be heard at local level, "in Government, young people have no power at all". He complains that the Government dismisses their campaign on the grounds that they do not have enough experience of life in Britain, but that there would be an outcry if such an excuse was used to deny the vote to European Union migrants or housebound pensioners.
He rejects the argument that adults know best. "Obviously all adults were young people once but it might have been quite a long time ago. Some people are a couple of years out of touch and some a couple of decades out of touch. Times change, political ideas change and each new generation has different ways of looking at things."
The group conducted a study on how well Article 12 is being implemented and sent recommendations to all Government departments, including:
- Children should learn about the Convention on the Rights of the Child as part of the National Curriculum.
- All parents of newborn babies should be given copies of the Convention.
- Young people should carry out school inspections with Ofsted.
- It should be compulsory for schools to have councils.
- A Minister for Youth should be appointed.
The minister would be supported by a team of young people acting as special advisers, suggests Daphne Bonanos, 15, another Article 12 steering committee member from London. She says the group is looking at how school councils work to find out why some are effective decision-making bodies and others are not. "I think young people should be consulted about education because we are the ones who really know what is happening. We know what works."
Although adults, raised under the ethos that children should be seen but not heard, might question the value of involving youngsters in decision-making, Ellen Leaver, 16, a member of the Edinburgh group of Article 12 in Scotland is adamant. "I believe that as people in the world we have as much right as an adult to express our opinions on matters which affect us.
"One of the most important areas is the right to have a say in education. I feel confident in saying we have more reason to be concerned about, and a slightly better idea of, what is needed to improve the education of ourselves and our fellow young people."
A recent study by Save the Children Fund Scotland on attitudes to education indicates some of the positive outcomes when pupils participate. Director Alison Davies says engaging children in consultation and decision-making "gives them more competence as negotiators and citizens. We don't see them as future citizens but as citizens now who have a part to play."
The move for consulting young people is beginning to become an accepted part of the political process. Since devolution changed the political landscape of the United Kingdom, the Scottish Executive has committed itself to offering children and young people new opportunities to express their views on matters that are important to them. Save the Children Scotland's report It's Our Education is being used to inform decision-making during the passage of the Education Bill through the Scottish Parliament.
The study consulted 11 focus groups of children aged five to 16 on their experience of the education system and sought their views on ways to raise standards and promote social inclusion. One of the key findings is that "children and young people would like to be more involved in decisions concerning their education and their school. They want to be respected as individuals with a key stake in their education and as such, to be able to express their views and to be involved in consultation and decision-making on school matters which affect them."
The report notes that two of the secondary schools involved say they aim to foster an inclusive culture, but have no formal structure for pupil participation. Interestingly, the older pupils indicate their resentment at not being actively or formally involved in decision-making with remarks such as, "They've done a lot of improvement to the school but not what we wanted, just what they think we want."
Yet in a third school, which has a variety of formal and informal mechanisms for pupils to express their views, the children have a strong sense of ownership over what happens and a more positive attitude towards teachers. As one said, "We get asked (our views) at our pupil council - it's us who make the decisions and then we ask the teachers. Most of the teachers are really good - you can get on dead well with them."
The Save the Children Scotland study says that primary school children find it difficult to respond to questions on pupil participation even when put in very simple terms. However, it also notes that not consulting the children has definite drawbacks: a group of primary pupils was not asked their views when the school bought new games and these have since been left unopened because the pupils say they are not interested in them and wouldn't have chosen them.
So at how young an age should children be consulted? From birth, according to Lina Fajerman of the Save the Children Fund's Centre for Young Children's Rights in London. She says that parents very quickly tune in to their babies" needs, likes and dislikes and this process should develop as a child grows. She explains that communication problems with small children can be overcome by using standard early years techniques such as play, drawing, observation and talking to learn the opinions of even very young children.
"They can start to learn in a nursery setting about making choices, making decisions and being taken seriously. This is the way they learn to be citizens," she says.
Ms Fajerman cites a participation project in London nurseries in Islington and Hackney (see "Can Do!" Nursery World, 9 December 1999) with which she has been involved. She says, "In one scheme, a play area is going to be redeveloped and the children's views are being taken into account. The children, aged two and a half to three and a half, were taken in a minibus to visit other play areas and their responses were listened to and their likes and dislikes observed."
In other schemes the children play an active role in determining the layout of their nursery rooms, or in arranging the mattresses for the afternoon nap. "The staff found children eat more when they choose what bowl they want and their food."
She is convinced children are not the sole beneficiaries from participation projects. "Some nursery staff are a bit dubious because they feel their expertise is being set aside. But in these schemes they find that their expertise is being used to enable them to act as facilitators rather than as directors, and that gives them more job satisfaction."
