UK Rapper Dizzee Rascal will join the likes of William Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy, on the A-Level English syllabus, as part of the government’s latest attempt to make the subject more accessible for the youth.
While examiners OCR were horrified by the move, exam regulators Ofqual, who initially rejected the idea, now welcome the new syllabus, saying that the texts should be included to reflect the growing and changing use of the English language. This will in turn hopefully allow pupils to engage better with the subject.
The syllabus will include a transcript of Dizzee’s infamous BBC interview following the election of Barak Obama, as well as evidence given by Russel Brand in the House of Commons, calling for the fair treatment of drug addicts.
The move comes amidst concerns that school leavers finish their GCSEs without the ability to read or write properly, and while the move will only effect those who have opted to continue studying English post GCSE, it will help students to “develop the skills to analyse any text, whether spoken or written, literary or non-literary, in the most appropriate way.”
The new syllabus has also been amended to ensure that students read the entirety of a set text, rather than smaller sections of it.
This is not the first time an addition to an English syllabus has raised proverbial eyebrows. In 2008, the lyrics of the late singer Amy Winehouse were included in an English exam at Oxford University, in which students were asked to compare the lyrics to her song Love is a Losing Game, with a poem by 16th century poet Sir Walter Raleigh, proving that pop icons and literary greats can indeed exist side by side, even in the most academic of settings.
For those readers worried that this is the demise of the English language as we know it, fear not, more traditional writers, including William Blake, George Orwell and Emily Dickinson, have also been added to the new curriculum.
