Does the Britions’ lack of knowledge concerning the dark times of their history represent their illiteracy?

I came across an article saying that a new study from the beginning of this year revealed more than four out of ten Britons viewing the British Empire and the country’s colonial history as something to be proud of.

This makes the impression that the curricula in schools do not seem to include all of the important historical events and especially the negative incidents that the British Empire evoked such as famines, slavery, massacres, concentration camps and tortures. In addition, the study exposed that only one out of five Britons sees the country’s colonial past as something which should be regretted.

This made me curious and I started to wonder in how far the government enshrined certain historical topics in the national curriculum. This so-called curriculum for the study of history specifies three different key stages that are arranged consecutively. The first key stage is only meant for the students to learn about basic principles in history and let’s say main key terms and concepts. The second key stage covers eras such as the Stone or Iron Age and the Roman Empire. The third key stage is the first one covering important events in certain periods of Britain’s historical past without which history lessons cannot and should not be imagined. These are e.g. the development of the church, Britain from 1745–1901 and everything else happening after 1901 until today.

What I found extremely controversial is that the Holocaust was mentioned as one of the mandatory topics that needs to be covered in the third key stage whereas, Britain’s whole imperial history is not required to be taught in British schools. Topics like “Indian Independence and the end of Empire” or “the development of the British Empire” are mentioned under the designation “Examples (non-statutory)” meaning that they are only recommendations to what can be taught in class. In Germany, we learn everything that one needs to know and practice to think more critically about what happened in our country’s past — in Nazi Germany. Of course we also learn about the positive events in German history, but it is more important to be conscious about and reflect upon the crucial things our ancestors did. To my mind, this should be part of everyone’s general knowledge no matter where in the world one lives.

I feel like this needs to change in the future and the British need to revise their current national curriculum from September 11, 2013 and make important events in the history of the British Empire statutory.