The Government needs to implement Youth Citizenship Commission proposals to turn schools into ‘sites of democracy’

As part of our series on youth participation, Andy Mycock and Jonathan Tonge consider the progress made in the five years since the Youth Citizenship Commission made a series of recommendations to government. They find that many of its proposals have been adopted, although without much fanfare. One area where there has been little change is in the use of schools to engage young people in democracy: the authors argue that electoral registration should take place via schools, there should be enhanced democracy within schools, and they should remain open when used as polling stations.