A STUDENT from Oxford who called for education on diversity and racism to be added to the school curriculum has pipped a footballer to an award. In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests last summer, Cynthia Muthoni created a petition stating that classes about racism and diversity should be mandatory. Now, the 23-year-old has beaten Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to a campaign award. Miss Muthoni has been named alongside Nell Bevan, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and Yacoub Yasin as the inaugural winners of the Petition Campaign of the Year Award at the Your UK Parliament Awards. The four campaigners put forward petitions on the issue of black history and cultural diversity in the national curriculum.
Student beats Marcus Rashford to win Parliament petition award thisisoxfordshire.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thisisoxfordshire.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The campaigners gave evidence to the Petitions Committee and Women and Equalities Committee as part of a joint inquiry, prompted in part by their petition. The Committees put the campaigners’ evidence to Minister of State for Education Nick Gibb MP in a later session, and the Committee’s work on this issue will continue with sessions with primary and secondary students in the Spring. The Petitions Committee will schedule a debate on these petitions once this work has been completed.
Nell and Esmie also set up the Impact of Omission initiative to campaign on this issue. Their website contains information about campaigning, links to teaching resources, and they have carried out a survey to hear about other students’ experiences, which has received more than 56,000 responses. They have used the results of their survey to raise awareness of the issue and their campaign.
Petition Campaign of the Year Award: Black history and cultural diversity petitioners among confirmed nominees voice-online.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from voice-online.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.