Pressure is mounting on the government to review the national curriculum and make the teaching of black history mandatory for all pupils in schools in England. Campaigners are collecting signatures for an open letter to be sent this week to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, calling on him to make the teaching of black history compulsory in primary and secondary school and across a range of different subject areas. The campaign, led by a group called the Black Curriculum, has attracted widespread support in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of George Floyd in the US, and in light of the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on black and minority ethnic people. Organisers have requested a face-to-face meeting with Williamson and want a response by Windrush Day on 22 June. The letter states: “Thousands of us, the British voting public, are grief-stricken and concerned about the existing status quo in the UK, which disregards the lives and contributions of black British people.” It says young people studying the national curriculum in schools in England are not given a full or accurate version of British history. “Despite numerous calls over the years to reform the national curriculum to incorporate black histories, these requests have been denied,” it says. “Learning black history should not be a choice but should be mandatory. Our curriculum should not be reinforcing the message that a sizeable part of the British population are not valued.” Campaigners want black history to be included in the national curriculum from key stage 1 in primary through to key stage 4 when students take their GCSEs, and across subjects including history, citizenship, English and PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education). Lavinya Stennett, who founded the Black Curriculum, said: “There’s an appetite for change. People want to see the events of the past weeks lead to lasting change. It’s something we’ve known is important for a long time. Finally people are listening.” Black history, including topics such as migration, belonging and empire, can be taught as part of the history and English curriculum in secondary schools, but whether pupils get to study it depends on the exam board and modules chosen by schools. Another challenge is that academies, which are not controlled by local authorities, have greater freedoms and are not required to follow the national curriculum, meaning many children may miss out on opportunities to study black history. Labour has promised that pupils will be taught about injustice and the role of the British empire as part of the national curriculum if it wins power. Black history is also studied and celebrated in Black History Month every October. Rosamund McNeil, the assistant general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Government needs to be more proactive. It’s time to show leadership on making the curriculum more diverse and more representative. It’s really helpful we have Black History Month in October, but it’s not enough to just do it in one month. We have to ask ourselves why we are not eliminating racism quickly enough.” Catherine West, the Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, has also written to Williamson calling for a review on the issue. She said she had been contacted by hundreds of her constituents complaining about the “complete lack of BAME history” in the curriculum and the ineffectiveness of the education system in tackling systemic racism. “Whilst changing our education system will not necessarily bring an end to racism in the UK, I firmly believe this is an important step in beginning the process of ensuring racial equity in the UK and will go some way to tackling the issues which have been so widely discussed in the past few days,” West said. Pran Patel, an education consultant who runs a campaign to decolonise the school curriculum, said that in the last few days views of his website had risen from 500 a day to 6,000. He said: “Through no fault of their own, our curriculum leaves one group of children feeling inferior and another group with a sense of superiority. Black children don’t see themselves reflected back, and end up feeling they can’t be the person they see in the inspiring story.” Shaminder Takhar, an associate professor of sociology at London South Bank University, said: “Decolonising the curriculum gives voice to those who have previously been marginalised. Viewed in the context of anti-racist struggles such as BLM in the time of Covid-19, it highlights hierarchy and inequality. It is a move towards a more inclusive society.” It comes as a new art education project, backed by Turner-prize nominated artist Yinka Shonibare, is aiming to transform how Britain understands its role in the transatlantic slave trade by placing sculptures that explore its legacy in UK cities. The World Reimagined project will see 100 globe-shaped sculptures erected in cities across the UK in the summer of 2022, which will be accessible to local schools, and created by well-known and community-based artists. Founding board member, singer and former EastEnders star, Michelle Gayle, told the Guardian she wanted to create a project that would start conversations about Britain and slavery, and provide an educational element for school and community groups. “It’s a cog in the wheel of what we need to learn about the truth of British history. Everyone can get involved, meaningfully,” she said. Gayle said the removal of the statue of the Bristolian slave trader Edward Colston on Sunday made her realise now was the right time to launch the project. “A lot of people were telling us that Britons are not ready to have this conversation,” she said. “Then the statue went down yesterday, and we heard people saying they were not taught enough about slavery. To see hear people talk about it like that made us realise that the difficult conversations are being had now.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Racism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place in our society. Schools already play a significant role in teaching children about the importance of having respect and tolerance for all cultures. “Black history is an important topic which schools can teach to children of all ages as part of the history curriculum. Schools can utilise resources from a range of organisations and sources to support teaching black history, including the Black Curriculum.”