Abu Dhabi: The Federal National Council (FNC) last week urged authorities to ensure children understand both the business of the House and the importance of political participation.
Dr Obaid Ali Al Muhairi, a member from Sharjah, questioned the role of school curriculums in raising the awareness schoolchildren have on the FNC.
"Schoolchildren have low levels of knowledge about the legislature and its role as an institution," Al Muhairi said.
He suggested that curriculums should be changed to help schoolchildren have a better understanding of the way House works while boosting the political participation of the public.
He added that the public's political participation should be made part of school curriculums to enable schoolchildren to learn about exercising leadership, develop civic skills of cooperation and negotiation, while acquiring bureaucratic and organisational skills useful for political activity and loyalty.
He said education enhanced other factors supporting political engagement, such as access to high-income jobs.
Al Muhairi said only one out of 35 school periods a week was allotted to civics or national studies.
Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami, Minister of Education, said the ministry had take a keen interest to educating pupils about the FNC and the political participation in general.
