Alan Bennett's The History Boys among texts being scrapped from GCSE English Literature course

Alan Bennett's The History Boys among texts being scrapped from GCSE English Literature course
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Ben Chapman

By Ben Chapman


Published: 29/09/2022

- 17:21

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 10:37

The UK's biggest exam board has said three texts will be removed in the next two years

Alan Bennett's The History Boys is among a range of books set to be scrapped from the GCSE English Literature curriculum to allow for a more "diverse" range of books to be studied.

The UK's biggest exam board AQA has said three texts will be removed in the next two years.


The other texts set to be scrapped include Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as the body aims to "improve the overall balance of ethnicity and gender of writers".

Exams are set for a shake-up from AQA.
Exams are set for a shake-up from AQA.
PA Features Archive/Press Association Images

Among the new texts is Princess & The Hustler, a play about family life amid the time of the Bristol bus boycott by Chinonyerem Odimba, the Nigerian-born British writer.

In addition, Winsome Pinnock’s Leave Taking is another play featured, which is inspired by Ms Pinnock's mother who was part of the Windrush Generation.

Kit de Waal's My Name is Leon, a novel about a mixed-race boy who is hoping to reunite with his family, is also due to be added to the list next year.

Certain books and plays have been retained such as George Orwell's Animal Farm, JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls and William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Chris McGovern has criticised plans, saying the term "diversity" is code for the "new religion of wokeism".

He told the Telegraph: "Exam boards have become a vehicle for promoting politically correct orthodoxies on the nation’s children. ‘Diversity’ is code for the new religion of Wokeism which, ironically, is highly intolerant of non-woke opinion.

"We need truly independent oversight of exam content to ensure balance and syllabus integrity."

AQA said the changes are a part of a "broader range of revisions and reviews" that the exam board is carrying out in order to "ensure they [qualifications] better reflect the diverse range of communities, teachers and students they serve".

AQA has created an equality, diversity and inclusion expert group in order to ensure greater representation in assessment.

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