Mercy Muroki: It is not a teachers' place to tell my child or your child which ideological position to take on any issue

It has become a fact of life that children are now exposed to so much politics, so much ideology, and so much, quite frankly, vacuous virtue-signalling.

Especially in classrooms, but also out of school.

And It's an unfortunate fact of life, in my opinion.

Some people say – oh, it's wonderful that children are so conscious of social justice and political issues these days.

They think it's enlightening and empowering for children to be cognisant of the ideological and political psychodramas that preoccupy us adults.

Personally, I'm not convinced young children need to be forming strong opinions about Boris or Brexit – and more importantly, I'm not convinced they're even EQUIPPED to.

In fact, I'd say they have been ILL-EQUIPPED to.

Because when it comes to impartiality on social and political issues, I do not trust schools.

Do I trust teachers to have impartial conversations about the supposedly impending climate catastrophe, white privilege, about whether boys can be girls – NO, I don’t.

We know that when children are taught about politics, racism, the environment, gender – or any other contentious issue, they are taught with an unashamed left-leaning bias.

They are taught all sorts of highly complex, contested issues as if they are gospel.

And this is wrong.

It is not a teachers' place to tell my child or your child which ideological position to take on any issue.

It IS a teachers' place to ensure that classrooms are an open, tolerant environment which put critical thinking front and centre.

Which is why I welcome the government's moves on this.

Writing in The Sun newspaper yesterday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced that he will publish new guidance THIS week to clarify the requirement for teachers to make a balanced presentation of opposing views in classrooms.

In other words, they will have to follow a new framework to ensure contentious issues are taught in a BALANCED way.

He hits the nail on the head when he says, and I quote, "parents and carers need to be confident that their children can learn about political issues and begin to form their own independent opinions, without being influenced by the personal views of those teaching them"

"Put simply", he says, "it means education, not indoctrination".

Now, detractors will say "This is just the government on the culture warpath!" - That the guidance aims to silence the left wing, uber-liberal views of teachers.

But I would suggest this: If teachers are afraid of having to teach views they don't agree with, then that's exactly why guidance like this is needed.

This guidance not only necessary, but it’s long overdue.