The age at which some people are given the right to vote has changed recently in the UK, with Wales joining Scotland in lowering the voting age to 16.
On Thursday 6 May, for the first time, 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland and Wales were able to vote in their local elections, and some argue that it won’t be long before England follows in their footsteps. If that were to happen, it would mean that schools might need to get more involved in teaching young people about politics.
Although the age you can vote differs between countries, all teachers should be thinking about how to prepare their students to engage in their civic duty of voting.
We asked Chloe Martin-Daplyn, an A-level student at Thurston Community College in Suffolk, to find out what students and staff thought about the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16.
Watch: Should 16- and 17-year-olds be allowed to vote?
Chloe is hoping to study politics at university, and believes it’s time to rethink the voting age.
“The want of a more politically engaged youth should be an uncontroversial statement,” she says.
“Young people should be more engaged in politics, and this can be done through giving them the vote and political education.
“A common argument against the vote for 16-year-olds is that they don’t care enough, but this is because they’ve never been asked to care. By giving young people the vote, it encourages an interest in the system. They are actively being asked to take part in something that affects them.”
This would encourage more active discussion about politics, she continues, including around decisions that have profound effects on young people, such as reforms to GCSEs and A levels, government inaction on climate change, and how Covid has affected education.
“Why shouldn’t young people have an active voice in these decisions?” she asks.
“At 16, young people are making decisions that will have a long-lasting effect on the trajectory of their lives...it seems logical they should have a wider say in their futures and the systems that govern them.
“Young people do need better education on politics, and this should start from a young age within school, but this should happen regardless of whether 16-year-olds should get the vote or not. Most people of voting age aren’t educated enough either.
“A more engaged and critically minded youth with a say in their day-to-day lives and future can only be a positive force for change.”
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