A NEW initiative to teach children politics in the classroom has been criticised by school heads.

The Government has revealed a new Citizenship course will be taught in all secondary schools from September this year as part of the national curriculum. The subject will be optional for primary schoolchildren.

Some headteachers have said it will result in more paperwork for hard pressed teachers who are already stretched to the limit.

Steve Roe, headteacher at Ribbleton Hall High School, said: "I think there is an element of the government pushing more responsibility onto teachers.

"We strive to cut down on administration and keep teachers in the classroom rather than behind desks, but setting up yet another subject for assessment will be problematic.

"I think this is a knee jerk reaction from the government because of schoolchildren's apathy towards politics. The onus needs to be put back on elected representatives coming into schools to talk to pupils." The new subject will include social and moral responsibility, community involvement and political literacy to try to make pupils aged 11 to 14 more informed and responsible within their neighbourhood.

It will be taught by personal, social and health education teachers with some staff attending training courses prior to teaching the subject in class.

The first assessment will take place in 2004 for pupils in year nine.

The introduction of the course is the result of work carried out by the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in schools.

It will be available in some schools as a GCSE after the summer holidays.

South Ribble MP David Borrow, accepted that there could be teething problems in the first year.

He said: "A good Citizenship programme will involve MPs coming in from outside and talking to children. The Government should give teachers the extra support to lift some of the administration off them."