Katharine Birbalsingh, the headteacher of Michaela Community School in north London, has warned that William Shakespeare could disappear from classrooms as schools in England face pressure to decolonise and diversify the curriculum. She said Shakespeare had already been “lost” in many places in the US and cautioned: “We are following America in this way.”
In an interview with the Guardian, Birbalsingh said schools were under pressure to change what they teach, but stressed the importance of keeping “dead white men” on the curriculum. She argued that Shakespeare has influenced literature for over 400 years and that his ideas are universal. “It’s right to teach Shakespeare,” she said.
Currently, pupils in England are still required to study Shakespeare, with GCSE students this summer studying plays such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest. However, Birbalsingh predicted that this requirement would eventually be dropped, with Shakespeare replaced by “any number of different black and female authors”. She added that while she supports including diverse authors, she opposes campaigns to remove traditional literary figures.
Birbalsingh, who has been described as Britain’s strictest headmistress, made the comments ahead of a new ITV documentary titled Britain’s Strictest Headmistress. The school, founded eight years ago, has a strict “no excuses” behaviour policy and was judged “outstanding” by Ofsted. In 2019, more than half of all GCSE grades were level 7 or above.
