The Education Secretary will review anti-Semitism in schools after it emerged the number commemorating the Holocaust has more than halved since the October 7 attacks.
Bridget Phillipson said she had genuine concerns about the ability of schools to deal with ‘hatred and prejudice’.
It comes after a Jewish MP’s visit to a school in his constituency was cancelled after a pro-Palestine campaign.
While figures show the number of schools signing up to mark Holocaust has more than halved since the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
More than 2,000 UK secondary schools signed up to events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in 2023, according to data from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Until that year, those taking part had increased annually since 2019. But after the Hamas killings, the number fell to fewer than 1,200 in 2024 and 854 last year.
There are more than 4,000 secondary schools in the country.
More than 1,200 people were massacred when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel in October 2023. They attacks prompted Israel to start a war on Gaza.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she had genuine concerns about the ability of schools to deal with ‘hatred and prejudice’
Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East, had been due to speak to students at Bristol Brunel Academy in his constituency in September before the visit was cancelled
Writing for The Telegraph, Ms Phillipson said the treatment of Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East who was prevented from visiting a school, was ‘completely unacceptable’.
She wrote: ‘But this is not the first concern we’ve heard about anti-Semitism in schools, and that is a problem.
‘It is clear to me that there is not enough support for school and college leaders across the country, to help them tackle hatred and prejudice whenever and wherever it arises.
‘I want to leave no stone unturned, and I want all schools and colleges to have the tools they need to tackle anti-Semitism.’
She added: ‘This anti-Semitism in Britain’s schools and colleges ends on my watch.’
Ofsted will carry out an inspection of the Bristol Brunel Academy after it emerged Mr Egan’s visit in September last year was called off after the Bristol branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) intervened, reportedly helped by members of the National Education Union (NEU).
Ms Phillipson has also asked the school’s academy trust to commission an independent investigation.
The school has previously said it rearranged Mr Egan’s visit for ‘an alternative date’ and that his visit was cancelled because of ‘plans for a public protest outside the school’.
Jewish members of Britain’s biggest teaching union have accused the organisation of ‘institutional anti-Semitism’.
Bristol Brunel Academy which is being inspected by the schools watchdog after claims it ‘may have been intimidated into cancelling a visit’ from their local MP who is Jewish
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi (pictured in August) said teachers were following ‘the path of least resistance’ by choosing not to mark the day in the face of opposition from pupils
Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, said he felt fear for the education system.
Teachers were following ‘the path of least resistance’ by choosing not to mark the day in the face of opposition from parents and pupils he said.
He said: ‘Holocaust Memorial Day is not a platform for political debate. It is not an endorsement of any government, perspective or conflict. It is an act of human memory.’
‘I fear for what will happen this year,’ Sir Ephraim. ‘For if we cannot teach our children to remember the past with integrity and resolve, then we must ask ourselves what kind of future they will inherit.’
Olivia Marks-Woldman, the chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said it was important for schools to mark the occasion – on January 27 – and encouraged teachers to organise lessons, classroom activities and assemblies.
Holocaust Memorial Day remembers the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War and the millions more murdered under Nazi persecution.
The Holocaust Education Trust, a separate charity founded in 1988, said teachers were anxious when telling pupils about Jewish persecution and feared a backlash from parents.
Karen Pollock, its chief executive, said many pupils ‘arrive in the classroom with views shaped by social media trends rather than evidence’ and Holocaust survivors ‘are being asked to navigate questions about a contemporary conflict just because they are Jewish’.
The Anne Frank Trust said three schools in England and Wales had postponed their Holocaust education programmes in 2024 because of ‘community tensions’. None are known to have cancelled this year.
Dan Green, the charity’s chief executive, told the Sunday Times that marking Holocaust Memorial Day had never been more vital than ‘during this time of rising antisemitism, Holocaust denial, revisionism and distortion’.
The NEU said it took ‘all forms of racism seriously’ and confirmed it had organised a ‘programme for national executive members with the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism as part of wider anti-racism training for our national executive’.
On the declining participation in Holocaust Memorial Day events, the NEU said: ‘It is more important than ever that we commemorate the Holocaust, remember the victims and learn the lessons that the Holocaust must teach us.’
