George Orwell becomes the latest casualty of the woke takeover of schools

JulieFri, May 29, 2026 at 4:00 PM UTC

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From September, George Orwell’s debut work will no longer feature on OCR’s list of non-fiction set texts - Ullstein Bild

This summer, thousands of teenagers taking one of the UK’s most popular English A-level courses will have the opportunity to write about George Orwell’s groundbreaking exploration of poverty and homelessness.

Down and Out in Paris and London, published in 1933, is still lauded for its unflinching depictions of destitution. One contemporary described it as “a genuine human document, which at the same time is written with so much artistic force that, in spite of the squalor and degradation thus unfolded, the result is curiously beautiful with the beauty of an accomplished etching on copper”.

But from this September, Orwell’s debut work will no longer feature on the list of non-fiction set texts for OCR’s English language and literature A-level; however, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life – a controversial biography by Anna Funder which claims Orwell’s wife was mistreated by her ungrateful, misogynistic, cheating husband and “cancelled by the patriarchy” – has been added to the list.

For critics, the change is an example of the woke, identity politics-driven takeover of education that began in universities but is now firmly embedded in schools across the UK. Under this agenda, the experiences of a “downtrodden” woman – even a white, well-to-do, Oxford-educated one, whom friends insist was not downtrodden – trump those of a white man, even one considered a literary genius.

Orwell’s first wife, Eileen, was a poet with a master’s degree in psychology who was married to the writer for nine years before dying at the age of 39. Funder claims that Eileen’s domestic and administrative toil – typing, cleaning, arranging, inspiring – while her husband selfishly lived the good life, was instrumental to Orwell’s success.

Eileen, Orwell’s first wife, is portrayed in Anna Funder’s Wifedom as the overlooked force behind the writer’s success - Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Various people are unhappy with this portrayal. Complaints have been made by the children of two of Orwell’s closest friends, who have written to the publishers expressing anger at the book’s errors and tone. Sylvia Topp, who produced a much-praised biography of Eileen in 2020, disputes Funder’s claim that she was “invisible”. Meanwhile, Quentin Kopp, chairman of The Orwell Society, concludes that Funder has “imposed a modern feminist view on a marriage of 80 years ago” in a book he says is deliberately destructive of Orwell and his reputation.

OCR has added fuel to the fire by removing the classic memoir and adding Funder’s book to the reading list. Candidates can choose to study the text from a list of 12 to complete the component, which is worth 20 per cent of the A-level’s total marks.

Students who might once have been introduced to the devastating interwar poverty that blighted the lives of city dwellers in two of the world’s most prosperous capitals can instead read about how Mrs Orwell had to live in a cold cottage and take the bus to the shops. They can also read how Orwell, in his 37 references to “my wife” in Homage to Catalonia, omits her name, even though Funder claims she saved the wounded writer’s life by arranging the paperwork needed to get him out of Spain.

Of course, sixth formers may well encounter the row surrounding Funder’s book as part of their studies, but even if they do, how many of them will end up reading Orwell himself?

Kopp argues that Down and Out, as well as Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, address issues that are “still very current”, while also providing fertile material for studying the similarities and contrasts between the 1930s and today.

“Wifedom is an extremely well-written book which pursues a feminist thesis that is not supported by any serious study of Orwell and Eileen’s life,” he tells The Telegraph. “I helped Anna Funder in many ways, which she acknowledged in the book. Notwithstanding that, it is full of factual errors and shows no understanding of English middle-class mores of the period. As a source for teachers, I think a book containing the author making foul-mouthed criticisms of men to her young daughter is inappropriate.”

This is a reference to Funder telling her 16-year-old daughter that Orwell was “an a---hole”. As Kopp sees it, on the one hand there is Orwell’s “well-researched book discussing issues of contemporary import”; on the other, a “poorly researched feminist attack”.

He says: “I am no authority on feminist literature, but I would be amazed if you could not suggest several better representations of well-argued feminist thought, if that is what is sought.”

John Sutherland, emeritus Lord Northcliffe professor of modern English literature at University College London, describes Wifedom as “somewhat tendentious”, arguing that it follows “the line of unsung heroine-ism which can be overdone in a good cause”.

Other works on OCR’s new list attest, critics argue, to the vice-like grip of the “oppression Olympics” on education. Included are books by deaf, autistic and anxiety-plagued authors, a British writer of Kashmiri heritage and an Albanian writer of Muslim heritage. There is also My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, by Jenn Shapland, which, even according to one Guardian review, focuses too “relentlessly” on the US novelist and playwright’s lesbianism. An anthology of working-class writers titled Common People at least gives the poor a look-in.

OCR said that while George Orwell is not on their new list of works, Wifedom is not there instead of a work by him. A spokesperson said: “Wifedom is not replacing Down and Out in Paris and London; it takes the place of another Anna Funder book on the previous set text list. In fact, many students who read Wifedom will choose to read Orwell’s writing to complement it.

“Inclusion of a text is not an endorsement of its content but of its suitability to generate rigorous and sophisticated analysis, including critique. The range of critical responses to Wifedom, as with other set texts, adds to its strength as a subject of study. Our set texts are not a prescriptive list: students are required to analyse one set text in addition to any other text of their choice.”

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It is not just English that has become a vehicle for activist causes. As The Telegraph recently revealed, exam board Pearson Edexcel’s decision to allow the use of gender-neutral terms in GCSE French lessons has triggered an international row. Sixteen-year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can now dispense with confusing masculine and feminine nouns and pronouns in their writing and speaking exams. Instead of using “il” and “elle”, they may opt for the newly coined hybrid word “iel”, with “iels” as a neutral plural.

It is a concession not even sanctioned by the French. Jean-Michel Blanquer, the former French education minister, called the exam board’s terms “absurd” and said they do not correspond to any widespread usage among the French population.

Jean-Michel Blanquer, France’s former education minister, called Pearson Edexcel’s use of gender-neutral French pronouns ‘absurd’ - BEHROUZ MEHRI/Getty

A Pearson spokesman said: “Gender-neutral pronouns are not required as part of Pearson Edexcel GCSE French, German or Spanish. The specifications require students to learn and be assessed on only the standard masculine and feminine forms used in these languages.”

Perhaps the starkest example of this ideological shift can be found in an accompanying Pearson Edexcel Spanish revision guide. One writing exercise asks students to translate the sentence: “My brother is transgender and happy.” The phrase appears among a set of otherwise mundane practice exercises.

Meanwhile, problematic words such as “immigration” and “homosexuality” are increasingly being removed from GCSE history syllabuses, along with terms including “slave”, “native Indian” and “gypsy”.

Pupils studying the Edexcel history course, which covers subjects ranging from early Elizabethan England to the USA and Nazi Germany, will now learn about migration and migrants rather than immigration and immigrants – even though, in general usage, “migrant” tends to refer to someone who moves temporarily to another country rather than settling there. The term “slaves” has also been replaced with “enslaved people”.

References to American “native Indians” in the old syllabus have been changed to “indigenous people”, “gypsies” has become “Roma and Sinti”, and “Jews” has been altered to “Jewish people”.

Perhaps more significantly, examiners have also removed references to tensions caused by immigration to the UK. In a section titled “Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: crime, policing and the city”, the old syllabus directed pupils to study: “The tensions arising from the settlement of immigrants from Ireland and eastern Europe. Pressures caused by the increase in Jewish immigration during the 1880s and the tendency towards segregation.”

In the new course, teenagers instead study: “The impact of changing patterns of migration: the settlement of migrants from Ireland and eastern Europe, and the increase in Jewish migration during the 1880s.”

Examiners said the wording was changed “to remove any implication of migrants being the sole cause of tensions”. Pearson said: “We regularly update the content of our specifications and involve teachers and other external experts where relevant.”

Another exam board has criticised as “Eurocentric” the division of history into the “medieval, early modern and modern” eras. In its draft GCSE history syllabus, the Welsh exam board WJEC tells teachers that “you may wish to avoid using these terms” and instead suggests the periods c500 to c1450, c1450 to c1750, and c1750 to 10 years before the start of the course. It says it will continue referring to the traditional eras in exam papers “for now”, for the sake of clarity.

Even the word “homosexuality” has prompted concern at Edexcel HQ. It has been removed from the religious studies GCSE and replaced with “same-sex sexual relationship” in order to “use more inclusive, up-to-date terminology which is better suited to the context in which it is used”.

According to Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, public examinations are being weaponised to force children to conform to the “tyranny of fascist woke ideology”.

Jeremy Black, the historian, author and former professor of history at Exeter University, likens it to “brainwashing”. He tells The Telegraph:“This is much more serious than the attitudes of individual academics or institutions, because the exam boards set the context, and often the content, of what students are learning in school. This is serious stuff.”

What strikes critics as extraordinary is that so much time and energy is being devoted to questions of equality, diversity and inclusion – and to scrutinising the modern implications of individual words – at a time when 55 per cent of pupils are failing to secure the English and maths GCSE passes needed to progress to sixth form, college, apprenticeships or work.

“Exam boards are allowing identity politics to distort the content of their GCSEs and A-levels in the false belief that this will somehow make education more ‘inclusive’,” says Iain Mansfield, head of education at the think tank Policy Exchange. “The real challenge is the many children – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – who lost out when schools closed during Covid. Exam boards should be raising standards for all, not censoring words, content and texts in the name of diversity.”

Among disadvantaged teenagers, the GCSE failure rate rises to 74 per cent, with many swelling the growing ranks of Neets – those not in education, employment or training. Educationalists preoccupied with identity and colonialism have comparatively little to say about these young people. When you are down and out, you do not get much of a look-in.

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Source: “AOL Breaking”