Young people are on course to vote at the next general election at the age of 16. They will do so having grown up entirely within a news environment unlike any previous generation. They have faced an endless, algorithmically sorted stream of headlines, clips and claims, arriving faster than many classrooms have a structured way to address. That is the context in which the Current Affairs Education Commission launched this year, and why the outputs of its work matter so much. The commission is a national inquiry chaired by former government adviser Sam Freedman and convened by The Economist Educational Foundation. It is working with a group of school leaders, broadcasters, artificial intelligence (AI) experts, youth-engagement specialists and research leads from ImpactEd Group. Over several months we are collecting teacher and pupil data and working with expert panels and youth focus groups to examine two questions: What does it take for children to build the knowledge and critical thinking to make sense of the news? And what is stopping schools from delivering it well? We are looking at the cost of disengagement, how social media and AI are reshaping critical thinking and what can make good current affairs discussion in class part of the routine, rather than a rarity. Where great practice already exists across the country, the outcomes can be powerful. Powerful practice I saw that demonstrated in spades at St Albans Girls’ School (STAGS), a state secondary school in Hertfordshire. When the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flared in May 2021, the school did not do what many institutions do when a global story erupts in a divisive way – say as little as possible and hope it passes. Staff noticed that students, some personally affected, had no one to talk to about it and were turning to propaganda leaflets and divisive social media posts to form their views. Leaders found that many students simply did not know the history behind the conflict, so they ran a whole-school assembly setting out the facts and perspectives from both sides, co-convened with their own sixth-form social action leaders. More than a hundred students came to the discussion club that followed and staff described it as one of the most powerful sessions they had run all year. That club, STAGS Talks About, now meets weekly, giving students a standing, adult-supported space to raise whatever is dominating the headlines that week. The success of STAGS Talks About requires leaders willing to trust their students with something difficult, and importantly, a structure sturdy enough to hold and explore complex themes when they emerge. I also see many examples of great practice where teachers are running weekly “topical talk” discussions, in the United Kingdom and overseas. Topical talks Produced by The Economist Educational Foundation, drawing on the expertise of journalists and fact-checkers at The Economist, “topical talk headlines” are free weekly lessons to help students discuss the worlds’ most complex current issues in a structured, non-partisan way. Topical talk teachers consistently report how discussions on live issues bring their classrooms to life. This includes questions such as: Should social media be banned for under-16s? Is the Iran war a just war? And is AI making us stupid? Less engaged students often get more involved than in standard lessons. Children develop not only an incredibly varied general knowledge, they also grow in confidence, their oracy skills improve and thinking critically and disagreeing agreeably about complex, evolving current issues becomes a normal, empowering part of school life. The struggle is not whether it works, it is where to fit it in. Young people are capable of a great deal when adults give them facts, structure and a genuinely safe space to disagree. Gap continues to grow The question has never been whether students can handle the complexity of current affairs, but rather how we create the space and environment for them to practise it and give teachers the confidence to facilitate it well. Examples like this exist, and they work, but they are still the exception rather than the rule. Most schools have no equivalent space, and most teachers have had no training in how to build one and to hold space for healthy dialogue. That gap will not close on its own, especially as the volume and speed of news, and polarisation of politics, continues to grow. The commission exists to consider how we can address this at scale, with education reforms on the horizon and with support for teachers and students. This is where we need the sector’s help. If you lead, teach in, or know of a school, trust, programme or structure already helping children to navigate current affairs well – whether through a weekly discussion slot, a peer-led model like STAGs, or something built from scratch – we want to hear about it. Every example submitted will shape what the commission recommends for the wider system. Children are living through a more immediate and complex current affairs environment than we ever did. We need to design a better system to help both teachers and students to navigate it with curiosity, communication and confidence.