Classic American novel Of Mice And Men has been removed from the Welsh GCSE curriculum amid concerns about racism.
The new English Language and Literature syllabus issued by the country’s largest exam board WJEC will be taught from September 2025 and does not include the book.
John Steinbeck’s 1937 text has long been part of the GCSE curriculum in the UK and follows the story of two migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression.
Instead of banning Of Mice And Men, we should teach it within its historical context
To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960 which tells the story of lawyer Atticus Finch as he defends Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of a raping a white woman, has also been removed.
Both novels explore themes of race and discrimination and feature racial slurs.
Speaking to the BBC, Wales’ Children’s Commissioner Rocio Cifuentes welcomed the move to remove Of Mice And Men saying it was “safeguarding the wellbeing” of children who had complained about how discussions of negative depictions of black people in the book made them feel.
She said: “They’ve very often been the only black child in that classroom when discussions all around them are focusing on very derogatory, negative depictions of black people.”
Welsh shadow education secretary Natasha Asghar criticised the decision, saying it was counter-productive in tackling racism.
She said: “Instead of banning Of Mice And Men, we should teach it within its historical context, showing students how overt racism and sexism was commonplace and accepted in the past and why this was harmful and wrong.
“Censorship doesn’t solve the problem; it prevents young people from confronting and understanding these prejudices some of which, sadly continue.”
“If we want to tackle this then instead of banning a classic text, we would do better to challenge media companies that produce music containing misogynistic language and words with racism connotations,” she added.
Of Mice And Men and To Kill A Mockingbird were previously dropped by UK exam board OCR from its GCSE English Literature set texts in 2014 after then-education secretary Michael Gove called for more British authors to be included.
The new WJEC syllabus includes other classic novels such as Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and William Goldring’s Lord Of The Flies.
Twenty-first century books featured include the Midnight Library by Matt Haig and The Beekeeper Of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri.
