Education: Philosophy
Debate between Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve and Baroness Barran(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Baroness Barran (Con)
I could not agree more with my noble friend.
Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve (CB)
My Lords, I think I have an interest to declare as the only surviving professional philosopher in the House. When I joined your Lordships’ House there were four of us, but the others are no longer with us. So much for the interest. My question is: does the Minister think that what we might call the A-levelisation of philosophy teaching in schools has, on balance, been beneficial, or not?
Baroness Barran (Con)
If the House will forgive me, I am not sure I am entirely familiar with the term “A-levelisation”, but what I do know is that many more students are studying philosophy—almost twice as many in our universities—than are taking the A-level, so whatever we are doing at A-level is equipping our students to choose philosophy as an option later on.