Teachers warn extremism policy prevents open debate

Teachers have warned that the government's anti-extremism strategy is "shutting down" open debate in school.

The National Union of Teachers conference voted for the government's Prevent strategy to be withdrawn from schools and colleges.

Delegates said it created "suspicion and confusion" rather than safety in schools.

The Department for Education says it "makes no apology" for protecting young people from extremism.

The NUT's annual conference in Brighton heard warnings that the counter-radicalisation policy was stopping teachers from discussing "challenging ideas" with their pupils.

There were warnings that it encouraged a climate of "over-reaction" in which pupils were mistakenly reported and the police called.

Among the cases mentioned were a child writing about a "cucumber" which was misinterpreted as "cooker bomb" and a child who wrote about living in a "terraced" house which was misunderstood as a "terrorist" house.

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