There was something different about the most recent Welsh Parliament election. Held yesterday, 6 May, this election was the first opportunity for around 70,000 16- and 17-year-olds to exercise their right to vote.

Wales joined Scotland in lowering the voting age to 16 in 2021 (see box, below), and some are now campaigning for England to follow in their footsteps, arguing that 1.3 million 16- and 17-year-olds are being denied their voting rights, despite having to pay income tax and National Insurance.

Whether England gives parity to its teenagers or not, further education students aged 18 and above already have the right to vote in local and general elections. Preparing them to take on that responsibility should be a consideration for colleges, particularly bearing in mind the issues the UK appears to have with getting young people to vote.

UK students don’t seem to be as interested in exercising their democratic right as their European counterparts. Only 47 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds came out to vote in the 2019 general election - a 7 per cent drop from 2017. In Germany and the Netherlands, 2017 turnouts for the same age group were 68 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.

So, what’s behind this low turnout in the UK? Jennifer Bachner is director of the data analytics and policy programme at Johns Hopkins University in the US and author of the 2021 paper From classroom to voting booth: the effect of high school civic education on voter turnout. She found that students who studied government and civics subjects were around three to six percentage points more likely to vote than those who didn’t. This effect was even more noticeable among students who reported not regularly discussing politics at home. Studying the topic made them six to 15 percentage points more likely to vote.

“Civic education is an essential tool for increasing turnout among young voters,” she says. “At all levels of education, civic education equips students with the knowledge and tools needed to engage effectively with government.”

But simply teaching the factual history of politics isn’t enough, she says. Instead, we must look at the skills needed for critical engagement. “Teaching students how to evaluate political issues and candidates empowers them to cast a ballot on election day and to engage in political discourse with family, friends and public officials,” she says.

“Meaningful political participation requires a set of critical thinking and communication skills that can be taught effectively through civic education curricula.”

But not everyone agrees that the way to boost voter turnout lies in the classroom.

Donald Green is a professor of political science at Columbia University, and has studied the ways that political campaigns mobilise voters. He says there are limits to what teachers can do.

“I think in a system where instruction is done in an engaging way, yes, perhaps [it will make a difference],” he says. “But done in an average way, maybe not. When I was a high-school student, my government instructors were not especially engaging or inspiring, and so I wouldn’t put much stock in their ability to generate voter turnout.”

Often, he continues, the most interesting aspects of politics can be controversial and difficult for teachers to discuss diplomatically, so when it comes to encouraging students to turn up and vote, Green suggests we can draw on our knowledge of human behaviour.

“Many people who are eligible to vote [and choose not to] may feel apprehensive,” Green explains. “They feel no connection, akin to a sports fan without a team.”

One way to counter this is to familiarise first-time voters with the process. Green explains that bringing in a mock voting machine and allowing students to cast a mock ballet, for example, has helped improve turnout among his students.

So, if the ideal is a combination of engaging education in the classroom and familiarisation of the voting process, what could that look like in practice?

1. Embrace any interest in politics

Mike Hill, principal of Carmel College in Merseyside, says today’s students are more politically minded than previous generations.

“Today, we have students wanting to talk about current issues, such as sexual harassment and attacks on East Asians in the US,” he says. “And, as a result, we have students asking us what we can do as a college - 10 years ago that would never have happened; students were more apolitical.”

Graham Rayner, assistant principal at The Sixth Form College, Colchester, has seen a similar shift, and says that recent protests have made young people realise that their voices and actions can have an impact.

“We seem to be in a place where traditional politics has limitations, and protests and grassroots organising have become more prominent,” he says. “For example, the activism shown by those who set up the Everyone’s Invited website on rape culture appears to have directly led to government action in the space of a couple of weeks.”

2. Highlight reliable sources

Rayner emphasises the importance of caution around online radicalisation.

“We are told by the local Prevent team that the attractiveness of conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, are the quickest way for vulnerable people to be drawn into right-wing radicalisation,” he explains.

To deal with this, he says, “we’ve recently had a tutorial on conspiracy theories, how to spot them and how to talk to people who believe them. There are lots of challenges ahead, as well as opportunities, with this kind of campaigning landscape”.

So, while we’re encouraging critical engagement, what reliable sources can students be signposted to if they encounter misinformation spread online?

A good place to start is fact-checking websites, says Pippa Allen-Kinross, deputy editor of fact-checking organisation Full Fact.

“When it comes to news, it’s important to bear in mind any political leanings or biases behind stories published by news outlets and blogs,” she says. “Before you believe or share anything you may have seen, it’s always worth taking a few moments to corroborate it with other sources of news.”

3. Practical preparation

As well as engaging students with the philosophy of democracy, college leaders also emphasise the importance of preparing for the practical side of voting. Rayner deals with this by making it a priority to educate students about what needs to happen before you get to the polling station.

“We always push the links to voter registration in our daily student bulletin in advance of elections and the referendum,” he says. “We are concerned that students assume their parents will have registered them already but they may not have. We also remind them they can register in advance of when they are 18, provided they are 18 before the election itself.”

In order to get students used to the process of registering to vote, Hill has even made it part of the student experience when they take part in student elections.

“We run mock elections as part of student enrichment, and we do student council-run elections and hustings,” he explains.

“Students have to register to vote for the student council. This also helps to build confidence in our system and highlights the issue of election fraud.”

4. Responsibilities as well as rights

Hill’s college has developed a pastoral programme that covers ethics and values.

“We look at our students’ rights and responsibilities from childhood to adulthood,” he explains. “Voting is the chance for you to have your say. Protesting is great but your vote counts.”

Jess Blair, of the Electoral Reform Society, believes colleges are well placed to deliver quality citizenship and civics lessons.

“What we need is a civic education guarantee for younger people in schools, alongside a plan of how this could work in FE institutions, to support those heading to the polling station for the very first time. We know that a first vote is habit forming and FE colleges have a big role to play in this.”

Grainne Hallahan is Tes recruitment editor and senior content writer

This article originally appeared in the 7 May 2021 issue under the headline “Never mind the ballots?”