British Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi on Thursday accused an exam board of “cultural vandalism” after it replaced works by poets including Philip Larkin and Wilfred Owen from its GCSE curriculum.
Zahawi said he will raise the issue with the exam board. Downing Street also said the education minister has the support of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR) examinations, a leading UK exam board, announced on Wednesday that it had updated its GCSE English Literature poetry anthology to add “diverse voices to poetry.”
Poems from 15 poets are added to the anthology, 14 of whom are “poets of colour,” including six black women and one of “South Asian heritage,” the OCR boasted, adding, “Our new poets also include disabled and LGBTQ+ voices.”…