The UK’s largest exam board, AQA, has been accused of censoring GCSE syllabus material by removing a poem that references knife crime. A request was made by AQA officials for schools to destroy the anthology containing Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Education for Leisure. This request was triggered by concerns raised by two schools about the references to knives. A spokesperson for the exam board confirmed that the decision had been made in the context of the current spate of knife-related murders. However, poets have hit back, insisting that such "censorship" misses the point of the poem, which could be used positively to debate the causes of street violence.
The poem has a youth yearning for attention and on a journey to sign on for the dole, making references to the killing of a goldfish before ending ominously with the youth walking the streets armed with a bread knife. AQA officials have confirmed that complaints have been made over three incidents, two of which referred to knife crime and the third was regarding the description of a goldfish being flushed down a toilet.
Duffy, widely tipped to become the next Poet Laureate, declined to comment but her literary agent, Peter Strauss, stated that it was an "anti-violence" poem that was written over 20 years ago during the time of rising social and political issues. Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate, has compared the situation to a possible banning of Romeo and Juliet, which features gang violence and stabbings. Overall, poets and academic professionals have rejected censorship of artistic works that express some of the most profound and troubling issues of modern society.
