Freedom of information request reveals use of PR-commissioned opinion polls and lack of concrete research

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The education secretary, Michael Gove, has come under fire for citing PR-commissioned opinion polls as evidence of teenagers' ignorance of key historical events.

Gove's department has admitted he cited polls originating from Premier Inn and UKTV Gold press releases.

Gove said in a Mail on Sunday article in March: "Survey after survey has revealed disturbing historical ignorance, with one teenager in five believing Winston Churchill was a fictional character while 58% think Sherlock Holmes was real."

The comments prompted Janet Downs, who describes herself as a grandparent and retired teacher, to send a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department for Education asking for the evidence to support Gove's claim.

Three weeks later, the department wrote back to say "unfortunately, I am not able to provide you with the details of the survey as it was commissioned and conducted by UKTV Gold".

The survey from 2008, which was reported by several newspapers, was released alongside a quote from the channel director saying it showed the strength of the UK's fiction. The statistics on teenagers were a subgroup from a poll surveying all UK adults.

Downs then asked the department why Gove's article had referred to "survey after survey" if only one poll had been used.

After another four weeks, she received a response detailing "the other survey's [sic] the secretary of state referred to".

These included a poll commissioned by Premier Inn, which used its research to suggest historical ignorance was something that "can be rectified by visiting all the fantastic landmarks and places of interest the UK has to offer", and an article in the London Mums magazine.

None of the pieces included links to the original research, and none of the articles cited stated whether the research was commissioned by professional polling companies, or met the standards of the British Polling Council.

The response to the FoI request also cited research commissioned by the Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft and a poll commissioned by the Sea Cadets, though it linked to a newspaper report rather than the original research.

Tristram Hunt, the shadow education minister and a historian, said: "Any good historian will tell you that it is critical to base your analysis on multiple, credible sources. Before he rushes to judgment about young people, Michael Gove should make sure he has researched the evidence thoroughly. Otherwise he risks coming across as Mr Sloppy."

Dozens of people have taken to Twitter to criticise the sourcing for Gove's claims as weak, including the poet and former children's laureate Michael Rosen, who tweeted: "When Gove said: 'Survey after survey' showed teenagers' historical ignorance he meant to say: 'I'm making this up.'"

A Department for Education spokesman said: "The secretary of state was talking about a number of surveys that found that many children don't have a good grasp of historical facts.

"This includes a poll of more than 1,000 children commissioned by Lord Ashcroft to mark the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial, and another of 2,000 by the Sea Cadets, which was reported in the national press.

"There is plenty of other evidence to support this argument. A 2011 report by Ofsted found that many primary school pupils ended up with 'an episodic knowledge of history and their sense of time was unclear'.

"In his book The Strange Death of History Teaching, Cardiff University economics lecturer Derek Matthews reported a history quiz taken by 284 undergraduates in which 83% did not know that Wellington led the British army at Waterloo and 88% could not name a single 19th-century prime minister - attributing this to the way history is taught in schools.

"We are taking action to ensure all our children are given the first class education they deserve. Our approach to the history curriculum has been supported by some of the country's most eminent historians, including Professor David Abulafia, Professor Niall Ferguson, Dr David Starkey, Antony Beevor and Dr Amanda Foreman."