Why Are the UK's Schools Failing (and can Labour fix them)?

[@Mmjk_12]

Im a fourth year uni student now, but back when i was a year 7 my school was great, loads of support, resources and opportunities for kids. By year 13 half the languages like Italian, Greek and Latin had been cut completely, all the sports teams funding had been slashed, extracurricular clubs like music, cooking and theatre too. Computers never got repaired/replaced, trips abroad stopped and there were hardly any teachers, half the lessons were substituted. That was one of the best grammar schools in the country... I feel so sorry for the poor bastards going through education now.

[@aura5854]

KEVIGS?

[@yurisei6732]

lmao look at this guy, rich enough to go to a school that taught latin and greek.

[@Mmjk_12]

@@yurisei6732 it was a grammar school. Doesn't cost any money to go or get in 😂

[@brandonstephens2644]

I completely agree. I'm in my second year and I can fervently see the difference between when I was doing my GCSEs and the people doing theirs now. That doesn't even mention how poorly unis and schools handled COVID. I paid 9,000 a year for 3 hours of online lessons one year it's horrific to think that's worth it

[@mongolianfishingvillages1371]

IVE NOTICED THAT WE DONT DO TRIPS IN SCHOOLS ANYMORE QUITE SAD

[@HotLavaMachine]

I was a newly qualified teacher in 2020. I probably worked 50-55 hours a week. And my case isn't unique, but I recognise it may not be the norm either. But I had to make my own materials, I was given little support in the classroom as a new teacher and despite writing my research paper on NOT doing homework being better for pupils, especially those in low income households, I was FORCED to adopt the schools homework policy. At least 1 homework assignment every week for every class I teach. Then marking books, marking the homework, planning lessons, extra curriculars (some mandated by the school) - it adds up. I left. I work in software development now and get paid close to double, I work from home, I get a bonus, private medical, adequate equipment and am encouraged to work NO MORE than 38 hours a week (we get told off for working more unless otherwise approved). My life is so much better, no scale that I was using before could possibly comprehend it. I was a good teacher. I was awarded the teacher excellence, I passed my course with distinctions and my paper was shortlisted for publication (it didnt make it). I enjoyed teaching Biology KS3-4 and sixthform, I LOVED teaching, but I hated the job and I promised myself I wouldn't workmyself into depression/hating their life like I saw from friends and family who were teachers. So I left - all that tax free money as bursary given to me that I had every intention to go into teaching as a career - wasted because I the job sucks on a scale I can't even describe properly.

[@peterfireflylund]

But homework is better, so your “research” wasn’t much good.

[@HotLavaMachine]

@@peterfireflylund the research I read as part of doing my research is pretty clear that homework doesn't do much. And in low support households it actively causes worse outcomes to punish them for not doing it.

[@jackelvey1587]

@@peterfireflylund I am sure this guy could waste you in a discussion about it.

[@ajdeveci]

completely agree with everything you said especially about the homework, the whole education system is in shambles and doesn’t work as efficiently as it could but the government doesn’t see that

[@peterfireflylund]

@@HotLavaMachine that’s because *nothing* does much. It’s not because homework doesn’t.

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

Hiring more teachers won’t do anything if they don’t raise pay or reduce our admin. This is like asking 9 women to make a baby in 1 month

[@Dumbird0]

I mean... i don't mind if they try... for education purposes of course

[@Aubrey2004-j4k]

@@Dumbird0💀are you normal?

[@aronseptianto8142]

ngl tho, that might as well work, there's a lot of administerial part of teaching that can be offloaded, grading paper, talking to parents, etc

[@MattJames2211]

@@Aubrey2004-j4k evidently they are very far from it

[@j2174]

How much is your current pay? + pension at 28.68%

[@SkepticalTeacher]

Children have no boundaries. Start there! Signed, A. Teacher.

[@randomlyashy]

as a secondary school pupil, i agree with you. i am actually embarrassed by the behaviour of some of my classmates

[@SkepticalTeacher]

@@randomlyashy I'm just sorry that you have to put up with it... it's very unfair that I spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with bratty behaviour, I'd much rather just throw them out until their parents decide to make them behave, but unfortunately for everyone (including the rude ones), this is not an option! All I'm going to say is... I have never met a parent and been surprised in terms of their behaviour and personality after meeting their child, both in the good and bad sense! Haha. I bet your parents are as lovely as you are - when I meet the parents of the kids with issues, it generally explains eeeeeeverything.

[@SkepticalTeacher]

@randomlyashy the worst thing is, these kids who are not properly socialised and misbehave, in the end, it's terrible for them, too. It's very frustrating dealing with parents that are in denial or just can't be bothered. There's a limit to how much you can try and turn things around in the few hours a week you spend with children.

[@iwillmeltyoursouls5885]

​@@SkepticalTeacher just because a kid behaves differently to the other blank faced robots in the classroom who sit quietly, don't move, don't do anything other than what their told doesn't mean they're destined for failure, matter of fact I think they'll end up performing better in society after education. I'm not talking about kids who purposefully do stupid things but kids who don't accept the rules set out by the government to reproduce the obedient workforce

[@Sheev8435]

My mum is a teaching assistant and she has an awful time. The kids are only 6 or 7 years old and they regularly assault and threaten staff, throw furniture around and attack other children. Lots of them always refuse to do what they're told and the SEN specialist just lets them do whatever they want all the time so they never learn anything.

[@yurisei6732]

We really did a horrible job predicting and adapting to the tiktok generation. Our education system is based on the assumption that kids perceive all adults as authority figures, but that's not the case anymore.

[@blackchrysler]

@@yurisei6732also because of the increase in autism/ADHD and child disability more kids are being told they are allowed to do whatever they want as their disability is an excuse for their hellish behaviour

[@dresdi]

Mine is also a SEN teaching assistant and it's the same story, regularly assaulted by kids and kids assaulting eachother yet they can't do anything about it. These policies letting children walk all over adults need to go

[@geraintharries5754]

That's very unusual behaviour for children of that age. Any students who are acting out to that degree probably have complex problems and need intensive support. Some of them should be in PRUs or specialist SEN schools. Others should be having counselling or other support. It is very easy to go into a modern Primary and not see any of that. You are probably in an area where the massive cuts to both council funding and education funding have shrivelled the support systems that these children would have had access to twenty years ago.

[@Sheev8435]

@geraintharries5754 yes probably, I live in the east midlands which battles with the north east to be the most unfunded region. There are no specialist SEN schools in the area at all.

[@Andrew_BIake]

I can say teaching is just not worth the effort! I was a teacher for two years (my bachelors and masters are in Biomedical Science and officially hold a PGCE) and quit in December 2019. Kind of luckily for me, when the pandemic hit, this kind of catapulted my into healthcare science again they were taking anyone and everyone they could get! I frequently worked 60+ hour weeks just to get my marking done, plan lessons, adjust lessons for SEN students... just not worth it! Yes that included school holidays and weekends... I can assure you, absolutely nothing, not even a six figure salary would get me back into a classroom again! EDIT: Where I work now (I work in the NHS and when I get home, I switch off, I don't keep working!), I can say my stress levels are much lower (I analyse all those samples you have taken from you i.e. blood, spinal fluid, pee, tissue fluid etc...) and the patients have respect for the staff, unlike in school where I was effectively bullied for trying to do my job...

[@trevorb5978]

Failed to mention that 40000 teachers quit last year> An extra 6500 teachers (basically one teacher per school) is nothing. Also, in order to reduce the number of hours worked per teacher, the workforce actually needs to be expanded by, say, 20%.

[@jamieclarke321]

There’s over 30,000 schools in the UK so 6500 isn’t anywhere close to one per school

[@Alex-fm5ke]

44k new teachers joined state schools last year and 44k left or retired. A 6.5k increase in recruitment for schools will be beneficial because it’s only specific subject areas that are lacking. There isn’t a shortage of English teachers for example

[@TheReferrer72]

@@Alex-fm5ke Not only that Pupil numbers are going down

[@trevorb5978]

@@jamieclarke321 I was talking secondary state school

[@annaisiomaful]

No one is surprised by this Labour also intend to increase classrooms by 45 per class within the next 5 years.

[@jayjaypen2]

Uneccessary school policies just to impress Ofsted that just end up overburdening teachers. Poor behaviour of students and soft leadership. Unsupportive parents who expect too much from schools and don't parent their children at home sufficiently.

[@scottbrick9918]

Teachers quit schools because they are constantly harassed by kids with no respect or discipline, I'm 18 and I remember my high school as hell on earth so I feel sorry for the teachers that got completely bullied by the kids. This should be the focus as teachers cannot teach when they are constantly dealing with kids causing trouble

[@PityOnlyFools]

Sick and impoverished children aren’t well-behaved. They are focusing on those issues.

[@Great_WesternTVFan]

Cannot agree more, these students are also famous on social media too; they think as if they are cool enough and do whatever they want if they have many friends, a 7ft tall bf or 4 ft 11 gf, and fame on their socials. Atleast we should be lucky; this drama is so much worse in many American schools.

[@0ptic0p22]

import third world become third world

[@JoshuaGeake]

A lot of parents simply don't care about their kids' welfare or behaviour. No amount of public spending is going to fix this.

[@popdop0074]

While this is absolutely true, I remember it very well, there are also a lot of arseholes who couldn't care less other than their paycheck despite having decent classes. A lot of the problem EVERYONE has when dealing with education is exactly that, "dealing with education". It's not a separate boxed off thing, your education is your entire life experience and you can't remove them. So the real goal should be to improve socioeconomic conditions so that pupils actually have hope and don't degenerate into neds or whatever tf they have going on in England, too many underclasses tho... Teachers should 100% be paid more but also the education system itself needs completely reworked for this country, it should be a more college style system with access courses allowing everyone to feel like they actually have a path. I don't even think school should just be a means to getting a job, but if it is then we could at least make it work. Nutrition and mental health is HUGE as well, and in this increasingly nihilistic, disconnected and lonely world no wonder the education system is failing when they ostracise students who are struggling, and protect bullies from repurcussions (for both pupils and teachers). The whole fucking thing is a mess because the UK is so mind numbingly hell bent on preserving the status quo at all costs.

[@Kwippy]

Just like the NHS, everybody in Britain wants the system improved, but very few are prepared to pay more tax to make it happen. Shuffling money around, and cutting inefficiency isn't going to do it. Nor would cutting aid to Ukraine and kicking out immigrants going to help. Also, Britain is haemorrhaging good teachers to the UAE and the Far East, where they get far superior pay and working condition, students who are eager to learn, and safety from abuse and violence.

[@jomdorr1240]

Tax is not the problem. Money is very much available despite what leaders tell us. The government only really need new revenue streams, easy enough to do, close tax loopholes for UK residents abroad with high wealth. Re-nationalise the water and rail services and re-distribute these companies' current massive profits. This will allow minor changes to education and an increase in funding to all schools. In education minor changes will benefit. shorten the school day nationally by half an hour and start all schools slightly later. Banning all educators from working after 5pm will stop overworking. Increasing pay and adjusting it to something similar to Ireland's structure. also charging parents for mandatory 1:1 tuition when grades are below a 3. schools need to force parents to engage. money is only motivator these days.

[@jamie59685]

money is not the issue. government involvement is

[@ChunkyyHD]

We are paying more tax via fiscal drag; record high Inflation has caused the currency to devalue by about 25% since 2019, but the tax income brackets have remained the same?

[@embalancer6146]

@@ChunkyyHD its how they raise income tax without raising income tax

[@FuzzyRiy]

Because the Taxes NEVER go to where they should. How many of my Taxes has gone to funding wars overseas instead of being invested in projects and infrastructure at home?

[@jmartins6567]

I’m a Canadian who taught in England from 2018-2020… it’s not just the excessive workload that is driving teachers away, but also some of the abhorrent behaviour that is seen in these classrooms that impact teachers’ mental health. Every teacher that I have met that has also taught in England have made similar comments. As well, there don’t seem to be enough resources to meet students where they are at and give them extended support to ensure they’re getting the most out of the education system. I think there has to be a lot of soul searching done in the English education system.

[@iwillmeltyoursouls5885]

Don't worry the high level performing students get all the help they'd ever need to boost schools OFSTED scores, rather than the struggling kids

[@henryginn7490]

I was a trainee teacher, and imo the most stupid thing about how the UK education system is run is not meeting students where they are at. To understand trig you first need to have a decent understanding of ratio and proportion, measure and length, and geometry. It does not matter whether the students do not understand those things, when they get to year 8 they will be learning trig either way. There seems to be resistance to organising students by ability/understanding, but personally I think it makes more sense to have students of all ages learning ability appropriate content, i.e. classes with students from different year groups.

[@davianthule2035]

"there seems to be resistance" Because the school system is a day care system first, education system second. But also a system that is ability based will rapidly expose inequalities even more dramatically then now. Most of the deficiencies in school modern school systems are explained by schools being basically children and youth containment facilities first, it's not a coincidence that schools operate with an internal psychology closer to prisons then not (extreme authority/power, "no talking back, I am Mr/Miss above you" etc, and the same tendency of prisons in social dynamics, I.e emergence of gang cultures and bullying), as well as teaching conformity etc (gee why does the system that values conformity and respect to power have such routine problems with children/youths building social dynamics that punish lack of conformity and a domineering power figure, weird fucking coincidence I'm sure).

[@TheMiniMaestroMan]

I have severe dyscalculia that went undiagnosed until my sixth year of high school. Because of my background, I was placed in bottom-set by default and expected to drop out. Excelled top of the country in English but abysmal when it came to anything numbers-related. I retook the subject again and again but would fail due to teachers snubbing me, telling me to simply "try harder" while handing more worksheets. I did private study lessons paid for out of my own money, loaned adult literacy books, spent hours each day studying the basics. I still can't read the time or tie my shoes. Schools automatically assume that everyone is simply at that level. By the time I was in fourth year, the maths covered was way too complicated for me to understand. I worried that I would never get into university. This "drown or swim" mentality to education is why a lot of white working-class kids dropout.

[@henryginn7490]

@@TheMiniMaestroMan Working with disabilities in mainstream education is a whole other can of worms and is done terribly, your story unfortunately does not surprise me. I worked with the bottom set year 7 class where most had dyscalculia, and they really surprised me. Firstly, they had a better attitude to problem solving than my top set year 10s, and also even those who were unable to multiply even single digit numbers could still do things like a prime factorisation when using a times table lookup.

[@Attham]

@@TheMiniMaestroMan Part of the difficulty you face is SEN being overly diagnosed. Too many students who have no actual disabilities flooded the system, leaving you and others who truly need the support insufficient resources. I also think there should be a separate curriculum/school for students in your situation, but like Henryginn7490 said, its a whole other discussion.

[@Randomman_4826]

At my school, our free meals used to be worth £2.55 (If you get free meals like I do, the school throw the money at you for you to then use), then a year ago the price went up 20p and they took away some drink options because they were becoming expensive and now the meals are worth £2.90 and you no longer get any sort of drink (not even a bottle of water) due to the crisis. This is the best High School in my area and one of the top 15 within my local council and 71st best in my County, for all of that at least five them some funding?

[@RedJadeArt]

Personally I’m worried about the safety of kids who are being taught by teachers that are overworked. Teachers all get training in being vigilant for signs of abuse and neglect, but someone who is working 50+ hours a week is going to miss something sooner or later, and kids could get hurt as a result. It’s hardly unreasonable for us to make sacrifices in terms of money to make improvements here.

[@TheReferrer72]

50+ hours is not a lot especially as teachers get holidays most workers can only dream of and AI can reduce work loads a lot now.

[@RedJadeArt]

@@TheReferrer72 do you work 50+ hours??? I work 35 on my contract I think that is plenty!!

[@TheReferrer72]

@@RedJadeArt I work remotely and do more than 50+ hours most weeks. Lots of research and training to stay competitive.

[@RedJadeArt]

@@TheReferrer72 you work remotely. Do you work like, in person, with large groups of kids, watching for signs of neglect or abuse? Because that’s the thing I was highlighting as a potential risk with having teachers work long hours.

[@TheReferrer72]

@@eightiesmusic1984 I teach my own kids, had to do that and hold down a full time job throughout lockdown. Teachers should work in industry if they think their job is so hard.

[@PLuMUK54]

In the years leading up to my retirement, I was averaging 70+ hours a week. My working day began at 07:00. Often, I was waiting for the caretaker to unlock. I began with marking until 08:30. The rest of my day was spent teaching, marking, dealing with pupils' problems (usually during break or lunchtime), and sometimes having to cover a lesson (where I was expected to take the pupils through their work, even if I knew nothing about the topic). As I began early, I left early, at 15:30. Between 16:00 and 17:30 I'd relax and have a meal. By 17:30, I'd begun my lesson preparation, working until 20:00 or 21:00. Saturday was a day off, then Sunday I'd often do an additional 8 hours. Being a teacher is like being Alice in Through the Looking Glass. You run and run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place. No doubt some will point to the holidays. I usually had 2 weeks off in Summer, the rest was spent on preparation, including spending several days in school getting my room ready. I far exceeded the hours for which I was paid. Without the goodwill of teachers working beyond their contracted hours, schools would be even worse. This is the reality for many teachers. Admittedly, there are those who do the bare minimum, but they are a small minority. I taught in a school with high expectations of staff and pupils. I also believed that it was my duty to provide the best level of education that I could. If Starmer wants to improve schools, then this workload is a priority. I loved my job, I happily worked as hard as I could, but there came a time when I could no longer cope. My health was suffering. My mental health was suffering. I decided to take early retirement before I had a physical and mental collapse. Looking back, I've no idea how I coped. I worked under both Conservative and Labour and can only say that neither supported teachers. It seemed as if they both went out of their way to make teacher's lives difficult. It is as if governments want schools to do the worst job possible in order to create pliant wage slaves. They do not care about the people of this country at all.

[@emmarainbow9557]

This was what I saw as a student teacher. Holidays!?

[@yurisei6732]

I think the future of teaching in the UK might be mobile teachers - teachers work for the council rather than for schools and are contracted out to schools that need them. The council department controls curriculum and workload, not the schools, and the responsibility of teachers starts and ends at the classroom. This should make it easier to standardise curriculums across schools and between teachers, making it easier to hire more staff and cover for absences, and potentially allowing some of the admin work to move to dedicated admin staff. There'd be some teething issues, and it's still not great, but the teachers i know who visit multiple schools in a week are much happier than the ones who work at one school the whole time.

[@nlpnt]

Protip; Write out clock times in part. Your working day ran from seven in the morning until 8 or 9 PM. When KZbin sees digits with a colon between them, it parses it as a timestamp within the video and automatically puts in a direct link.

[@ArtSmart91]

I’ve been a secondary school teacher for 9 years (started teaching under Micheal Gove) and this video doesn’t even come close to outlining the complete and utter mess eduction is in. A 5.5% pay raise, breakfast clubs and an empty promise of 6,500 extra teacher will have a minor impact.

[@tomburns3611]

I do enjoy the content men. However I think the media and politics are missing the biggest problem in teaching (in my opinion). I am a teacher that was in my third year in the UK before leaving to another country. I loved the job and found the workload was manageable. However, what made me unhappy was watching children rule the roost and take no responsibility for their own learning. It was all on the teacher. Furthermore, Schools have no power what so ever to enforce their own policies. If a student breaks the rules consistently, abuses staff or other students, what can the school do? Pretty much nothing is the answer. Detentions, students don’t attend, temporary exclusion, has no impact, permanent exclusion, too expensive as it costs the school £10000. I know one student cost my old school £27000 to exclude. The student in question put another on intensive care and physically assaulted a member of staff. Still cost £27000 to remove from the school.

[@Psyk60]

What happens to students who do get excluded? Is there anywhere else for them to go? Ideally there would be specialist schools they could go to which would focus on discipline. But I don't suppose there's enough money for that.

[@andybrice2711]

Yes, I have similar things heard things from people I know working in schools. And the stark differences between how different schools handle rules and discipline.

[@andybrice2711]

I think it might make sense for classrooms to have "invigilators" like exams. Teaching and enforcing discipline are two quite different skills. So I reckon it could be helpful to have someone in certain classrooms who just supports the teacher in maintaining order and good behaviour.

[@DavidGetling]

That's why we need to bring back the borstals!

[@andybrice2711]

@@Psyk60 There are such schools. But I think they're very expensive to run, and reserved for the most troubled children.

[@kingdomofaphalas.2485]

I was a part of the year group that lost out on our A-levels due to covid and the 2020 algorithm, I would say before that I was fairly lucky where for the most part in education the teachers I had were focused on there subjects but we still had our GCSE's also put under heavier pressure due to complaints from higher up and I recently went to an interview and heard from an assistant headteacher that now its like teachers have to be prepared to cover any subject and rarely get to focus on teaching their own.

[@iwillmeltyoursouls5885]

your so lucky you got to lose out, the boosted grades from those years were crazy. Mental to think about how If I was born a couple of years earlier I could have come out with higher grades, and a better start in life

[@Amberxxbbunni]

My dads a highschool maths teacher. He left the school he had been working at for over decade and was a substitute teacher for a little bit. They made my dad teach French and German.. to this day, he doesn't know a word in French or German. I can only imagine how chaotic those lessons were

[@ekattri]

I was asked to teach Spanish, I don’t know a single word!

[@ultramation4223]

The school are just forcing everything to everyone... The teachers and the students. Like what you said, they are forcing your father to teach French and German, while we students are forced to "learn" what they say. They are just shoving information down our throats that we probably would rarely use in life. And also we have to do homework which let's be honest... Barely works because the system is just very much outdated. It's like asking a woman to give birth to a kid in 1 month or else.

[@shahankhan7685]

2 child cap and then they ask why people are not having kids. Child poverty on the rise and then they ask why people are not having kids.

[@BrianMartin-ox2ru]

Why should my taxes pay for other peoples children - that is the Parents job.

[@Ataturkinator]

​@@BrianMartin-ox2ru10 years of "Why should my taxes improve my country" been going well for the UK so far?

[@zaneron8391]

@@BrianMartin-ox2ru Why should you be allowed to use roads? or electricity? all of that was built with other people's taxes. You don't deserve it.

[@BrianMartin-ox2ru]

@@zaneron8391 Built with MY taxes. You really are stupid aren't you?

[@James-tv4pl]

​@@BrianMartin-ox2ru Young people are needed to support the pensions of the elderly through taxes. So you can either pay for other people's children, pay the costs of mass immigration, or say goodbye to your state pension. Which would you rather?

[@deadby15]

it'll be VERY difficult to have positive effects unless the whole society starts to have different perspectives. kids don't behave as you tell them, but behave just as you do yourself. is the society at large functioning as a good example?

[@robc1014]

My partner is primary school teacher and she said the classes are far too big now, TA’s have also been told to take pay cuts, not to mention SEN schools being closed and having them dumped in regular classes so the SEN kids dont get what they need and hinder the regular kids learning at the pace they are supposed to. Not to mention alll the other issues.

[@Bryan-dr7sz]

i went to a SEND school and I was in mainstream education both as a student and I completely agree on this statement there isnt enough sen schools in the uk with a rise in the amount of SEN school students it becomes almost like the hunger games when trying to find support let alone apply for an EHCP

[@Killerkraft975]

I believe child engagement and interest is the reason why some children just have completely no interest. The point of examinations is less about testing the child's capacity of understanding, but following a structure formula. It's not about what the child actually finds interesting. Coupled with unengaging lessons where the children soak up the data rather than think for themselves and critical thinking. Its all for a capitalist society in which the STEM degree qualifications are favoured and pushed onto children. After graduating university, I realised I actually love learning. It's just more engaging when I can do it in my own terms and pace. I decided to learn A level chemistry on my own and currently A level physics. Why? Because I am curious. Schools need to encourage this, and examinations and the system need to be reformed if that were the case.

[@MeganGrace130513]

I've thought for years that having a self-led class throughout school where you do a project a year (this kind of exists in the International Baccalaureate programme) There could be criteria like there has to be a maths element and a science element. Then the other subjects are learning the foundations to use in the project . It would tie everything together. But I also know it would likely make more work for teachers if they are expected to do the same level of marking etc. for the other areas of the curriculum.

[@thomasbowden4806]

A similar scenario happened where I'm from. My school was selective, half fee paying, half subsidised by the state. They announced they would cut the subsidies to safe money so a quarter or so made plans to switch to state schools. The schools filled up instantly and the state reliased they had to pay all of the schooling burden, not half. A U-turn swiftly occured.

[@melodiclodgings8]

There is so much problems with the school system from high school to uni, the list will just go on and on the school system has been crumbling for decades and not once has it been fixed successfully long term

[@ricequackers]

Bring back the grammar school system, which was successful in elevating poor but bright kids into successful adults. Of course, this conflicts with Labour's crab bucket mentality so it won't happen.

[@khaaneph7311]

That system had its fair share of problems. Deciding the quality of your future education (and very often you entire future career options) on a single test you take when you are 12 is insane. What if you didn't sleep well the night before and underperformed despite being bright? You'd be banjaxed for life

[@davianthule2035]

Grammar schools are awful and should remain buried, Yes, lets decide the fate of a child from fucking 12 years of age, I can see no problems with that at all /sarcasm, Germany which still has the equivalent of grammar schools definitely has not identified them as a key cause of class immobility or anything

[@MeganGrace130513]

they still exist in some areas! just not as common as it once was (I think it was re-introduced by mr gove?). Some places won't have any grammar schools though so the test will be irrelevant.

[@PShawtx]

Notice UK labour is doing nothing about the work load a reason teachers are quitting.

[@RED-my9hl]

notice how tory made this problem

[@falcon758]

Knowing a lot of teachers who have quit and moved to another profession, the main problem is overworking teachers and not protecting them enough. Teachers are highly stressed from being terrified that they will say something slightly wrong (or often completely normal!), which will offend a child. That child can then so easily create a devestating situation for the teacher causing major stress, repercussions and even job loss. It is not fair that teachers are not more protected. Very few teachers are bad actors, most are really good people, but we are punishing the majority because of a few. There need to be better ways this is handled. Also, if there is a problematic student, teachers have to spend many hours and days outside of their normal duties putting together massive files. Just so that they can try and raise the issue of the child higher up. And then most of the time nothing happens to the child and the teachers become victims themselves. The whole system is appauling and we need to start protecting our teachers!

[@DavidGetling]

So true, but neither government nor parents want to hear the truth.

[@falcon758]

@@DavidGetling yeah, that is exactly it. The parents dont want to hear that, and the government thinks the opionions of the parents are more important. But they are being naive and don't realise the whole system will ultimately implode then. I want my kids to have a quality education, and I know that can only happen if the teachers feel happy in their job, but most parents do not realise that sadly.

[@TimothyHartwig]

Wait, what!? The UK did not have a mandatory requirement have a special ed team at every school. I come from United States in the state of Wisconsin particular and that’s been a requirement for decades. I am a beneficiary of special education(ED and LD), and it made me able to become a professional today. Just wow. That was an oversight.

[@will5459577]

Yeah, my secondary school didn’t have a proper team for us special eddies and it was just left to the teachers to work with. Meant that people like me (undiagnosed audhd at the time) and others, undiagnosed or not, struggled a lot.. this was back in 2012 though so it might’ve gotten a bit better now

[@Jay_Johnson]

It's expensive

[@oscarmccoy9102]

@@Jay_Johnsontax the billionaires. Literally all the funding possible is right there.

[@Theblaster125]

​@@oscarmccoy9102 This never works because billionaires just leave for countries with cheaper taxes, making the economy weaker for the country they left due to the billionaire's money leaving it.

[@mathat186]

"This video will concentrate on primary and secondary schools in england" Why use UK in the title then?

[@jonevansauthor]

Because education in the UK isn't that good, and hasn't been since before I was born, and lots of people don't know the difference. Or where Scotland is. Or that Cornwall exists and how to boil an egg, or write with a fountain pen.

[@armaan6101]

None of the other countries in the UK besides England matters obvs

[@jambott5520]

​@@jonevansauthor I get your point but, why fountain pens? They are just, unnecessary for most people. Ball point pens are in general far more consistent.

[@Vasioth]

My point exactly. Have noticed that TL;DR news is focused primarily on England, despite Scotland having its own parliament, its own devolved government etc. I found their housing crisis video very myopic. What about Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? The SNP are in charge of Scotland, not Starmer's Labour govt etc. It might be worthwhile for them to do a seperate channel covering each etc. or flagpole this in their video titles with brackets (England).

[@devanman7920]

What exactly isn't broken in the UK? 😅

[@ian_strachs]

Nothing. Whole place is fucked. Leave asap.

[@DrEmilSchaffhausenThe3rd]

@@ian_strachs Better to fix it than f-off? I view your attitude as cowardly and traitorous.

[@ian_strachs]

@@DrEmilSchaffhausenThe3rd I don't care. No individual will fix it, and I don't want to waste my limited lifespan in a decaying husk of a country.

[@John-ny7jn]

@@DrEmilSchaffhausenThe3rdthis is exactly the attitude we need - rather than constantly complaining abt it we should all be working to find solutions I’d argue it’s much more patriotic to work to fix the country even just as individuals rather than just saying it’s all broken so let’s just leave

[@davidantoine8296]

@@DrEmilSchaffhausenThe3rdtotally agree I wish channels like this one would put more focus on solutions rather than just highlighting problems

[@hooting-ton5215]

Of course I see this after seeing a teenage kid walk about outside on a Thursday morning like it was the weekend lmao

[@aubs400]

One massive issue no political party seems williong to confront is that boys' and young mens' educational outcomes have drastically gotten worse, while those for women and girls have improved. If Labour were serious, they'd engage with that issue. Sadly, few politicians are brave enough to genuinely tackle issues that largely affect men.

[@effluxi9587]

It's a very important issue also because the disenfranchisement of young men is arguably the biggest cause of them turning to extremist ideologies in the modern day. Tackling it is almost hitting two birds with one stone, and something Labour in particular probably ought to want delt with. The conservatives and especially reform, not so much.

[@DavidGetling]

That's because most boys and young men NEED discipline, and there is none.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

@@effluxi9587I think a bigger issue is boys becoming criminals, the extremist ideology thing is overblown

[@justthatguy-yq2py]

​@effluxi9587 considering garage also addressed the issue as an "embarrassing moment for british pride" I think he would cover it

[@effluxi9587]

@@justthatguy-yq2py he wouldn't address it, at least not properly, it's far too convenient to his various devices to leave it as is and let it pull people to his party indirectly. He argues himself as a man of the people, but it's all talk, his actual actions completely contradict it.

[@mabeSc]

Wonder how they're going to make sure people get "work experience"? Because in the current system, kids have to lie as literally nobody is ever going to let a kid do anything within their companies. Adults have massive difficulties finding any kind of work, let alone college students.

[@jonevansauthor]

Yes because teenagers are utterly useless at everything. I've had to train them how to use a broom to sweep a floor, and why it isn't swept if you can still see a bunch of rubbish strewn all over it. Work experience was a total waste of time for everyone involved. The only friend who I had who got anything useful out of it, went to the Royal Marines and ended up in the Army as a musician. Everyone else might as well have stayed in the school library and read a book.

[@mabeSc]

@@jonevansauthor Not gonna lie, that's very relatable.. Joining the Army now is not a bad idea at all, plenty of roles in all possible fields with training and qualifications, too. The salaries might even end up increasing further, given the current situation worldwide.

[@GitYerRatOut]

UK college is also terrible, I had tutors in my computing level 3 and level 3 extended courses who we're learning to code with the students they were teaching to code and then told us to cheat on a two day exam by using chat GPT to write the code for us. I got a distinction on that exam, which caused me to drop out.

[@yurisei6732]

Jesus. At least university programming courses pretty much start from square one.

[@jonevansauthor]

My computer science teacher told us computers were temperamental, apparently having confused them people, and we learned about Winchester discs, not coding. My university was teaching Cobol not C++, which is like asking to study Spanish at uni but being taught Latin because once you've learned that, it'll help you learn Spanish.

[@hajratalib2125]

My teacher also said copy and paste from a coding website, he taught us like hello world but that's about. Also just uploaded videos and hoped we'd learn from them.

[@TheMiniMaestroMan]

Computing classes go at a snails pace. Took one for three years, and we wrote maybe three lines of code. It was basically a teach typing class with Scratch and Excel. Nothing actually of use. Like basic IT stuff any half-wit would understand. I get tech skills are hard to come by because of modulization simplifying the nitty-gritty with UI but come on man. If a 15 year old can't figure out how to use Word, they're thick as a brick.

[@arron620]

From what I can tell from my friends in education, teachers are basically given a lot of non-teaching tasks which makes their job almost impossible.

[@DaveVespa]

I thought most schools are now academies and get their funding from central government rather than local government.

[@DaveVespa]

Gotcha. Although, as some people already said, it should have been called England education as its devolved in Scotland & Wales and no mention of NI.

[@chilloutcentral2097]

VAT on private schools? How stupid is that?! That’s a tax on parents who do the government a massive favour by not sending their children to state schools.

[@jambott5520]

Private school cause a lot of unforseen problems. The primary one is that the children of rich parents don't end up in the public school system. So those rich people, including politicians, have no incentive to make the public school system at all functional, after all, it won't affect their kids. A VAT on private schools is the least they should do.

[@Medved290]

Complete reform of SEND legislation and more funding for the local authorities to make special educational provision is drastically needed. Plus investment in training and retention of Educational PSychologists which is why most plans are late because of lack of people to assess these children properly. Also more funding for the NHS so that Speech and language and Occupational therapy assessments can be carried out with Plans so they give a comprehensive picture of the child's needs. it's not just that these plans are often delayed over the 20 weeks mark it';s that they are an inadequate reflection of the needs of the child with provision that is inadequate. For children who need specialist settings the places just don't exist and the Local authorities are having to spend up to 100k a place in the private sector or leave hundreds of children on a waitlist.

[@JulianCooke-yn5lh]

As a teacher, there are some very simple problems. Due to low salaries, few quality student teachers go into teaching. Of those potentially great teachers, ie those that can engage with pupils, and convey information in a coherent, interesting and logical style, they quickly become overloaded by excessive class size, lack of classroom support for SEN pupils, which used to be catered for by SEN departments, lack of good supportive management team from above, and a complete de-professionalisation of teaching so that parents treat teachers like the proverbial. I loved teaching, and was one of the good ones, but I left some 20 years ago after 10 years. I could see it was only going to get worse. I have been asked to return to teaching a few times, but the honour of being able to teach young minds was drastically outweighed by conditions, which just seem to get more desperate each time I am asked. I make more, with less stress elsewhere. Good luck to all those still in the profession, you are amazing. PS The labour reforms will only waste money, and make things worse. It is so obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense. They do not know what they are doing, and doing this only as a PR exercise. Solutions: New purpose built schools designed by teachers (keep self serving architects well away) and built by competent builders using old style methods. Bring back sports fields which were all sold off for housing. Class sizes absolute maximum 24. Separate SEN and only integrate, with support on a carefully managed basis. Improve management conditions, and quality of management teams in schools. It tends to be poor teachers go into management to fail the good teachers. Focus on education, not on woke agendas. Include home economics and humanity subjects, not woke. Have woke classes outside of school on a voluntary basis. Improve school teaching resources. Bring back books combined with a really well thought out Dorling Kindersley style online education programme. Properly fund schools and not waste money with HS2 or EV projects.

[@TheMiniMaestroMan]

I graduated about a year ago in Dundee, Scotland. We have our own education system regulated solely by the SQA, so everything they say goes. It is unbelievably stupid how the Curriculum for Excellence has destroyed a once world renowned education system. The school I went to encompasses catchment areas from the 5% most deprived in the SIMD index. We became a dumping ground for the areas no other school wanted to incorporate. Teachers were always absent, the building was collapsing with mould, asbestos and pipes leaking raw sewage and the students would violently assault each other daily. What's worse is how classism isn't just perpetuated but endorsed by our government. They tried to judge grades during lockdown based on postcode and would lower it depending on the mean average of that area. So if you got an A, it would be lowered to potentially a C simply because you live in a poor area. There were massive protests about it. Private schools get all the resources funnelled to them while state schools are left with nothing, hardly even a budget. I am glad I left, nothing but bad memories.

[@joshualuke7003]

Well my niece and nephew’s primary school curriculum revolves around iPads, so that might have something to do with it…

[@MedinaA-o2u]

I'm now a year 6 student. Back in year 3, the people were supportive. When i was in year 4, half the extracurricular clubs like cheerleading and music have been cut in my school

[@maotseovich1347]

That entire policy basically screams "We have not spoken to literally even one single actual teacher!" as loudly as possible through a megaphone pointed at a megaphone, hooked up to a stadium concert sound rig.

[@AlexGoldring]

"Career advice" An unsuccessful person telling you how to succeed in life.

[@ployyindee6880]

In fact ,Uk education is run by international student money

[@crizzhutch1066]

Failing because of far too many weak teachers more interested in pushing politics than anything else. If teachers were also held responsible for bullying. It would stop over night.

[@Spacecookie-]

Poverty and mental health are societal problems, not just problems for school. They need to be resolved throughout society. This all sounds like someone with a lot of paper to write on, pretending they'll solve all of the problems. It wont work in reality, as with most plans on paper. School was always hell for us lower class kids. Right through from 5 to 15 years old, when they didn't want to know any more, and I was on my own. Lucky enough we had economics taught in high school, where we learned about dealing with money, loans and how things ran in the wider world, and home economics, so I knew most stuff about running things at home, and we got a day trip to a bank to learn about what was needed to open an account and stuff. Other things were taught by family. Driving wasn't covered because no-one is guaranteed to own a car. It's a luxury item, and any luxury items were optional to learn about when the time and situation was right, except a home. Mortgages were a part of economics. Careers advisers in school before High school is a bit of a waste. No-one even thinks about ending up in work at that age. It's enough to be trying to deal with all the school work we had to do, which was just the formation of how to think and learn in a formal situation, before going on to high school and learning things for the world of work and all that. High school was where we had a careers teacher too. I'm still a product of that education system though. Not given any care or future to look for. People like me never went to college, that was just a middle class option, and university an upper class option. No money, no real education and no hope for anything in the future. And here I am today, still in that situation, with generational trauma still being dealt with, and still no money, and heading well towards pension age with no job, and no prospects of any kind.

[@Great_WesternTVFan]

The non-specialist teachers usually teach bottom set students.

[@JackDrewitt]

On my maths pgce only i and 8 others had maths degrees out of over 40 on the course, my impression is that most maths teachers dont have maths degrees in faculty ive worked in too.

[@kb4903]

@@JackDrewitt People with maths degrees get alot more money in finance and trading in the UK. So many come in their 30s into education when they have had enough.

[@IainFrame]

The ones who become teachers purely because they have no interest or skill in anything actually valuable. Teaching is an easy decision for them and an awful outcome for society.

[@JackDrewitt]

​@@kb4903opposite for me, left teaching for finance. Having to mark and plan every free hour outside school, and then manage 200 misbehaving children each day on no sleep was too stressful.

[@kb4903]

@@IainFrame What are you basing this on? Teaching isnt an easy decision or soft option.

[@DDSizeBra]

My old secondary school has Maths and English Literature & Language for GCSEs as 'optional'!! Unbelievable. During my year (2013), most of us had to do 12-14 GCSEs (including core and optional subjects). Now, the same school is happy for its students to do 4...

[@randomguy-tg7ok]

From what I've heard, the main problems with the education system are 1) parents, 2) discipline, and 3) parents. So I'm gonna go with "no".

[@JackDrewitt]

Teachers are also overworked, every waking moment outside school is expected to be used planning and marking.

[@sueyourself5413]

I really hope that you're 60+ and childless to be talking such nonsense.

[@blackroseangel123]

You're a moron if you think children and parents were any different in "your day"

[@randomguy-tg7ok]

@@blackroseangel123 Children? Nah, I don't think they've changed. Parents, though? From what I hear, Boomer and Gen X parents usually tended to interact with their children.

[@nuhabashir1672]

​@@blackroseangel123 it's parents

[@Sammy-qt9it]

Some subjects don't really need a teacher who has a degree in the subject. I've got a maths degree, past my A-levels I did not learn much that would make me a better maths teacher. I would be equally qualified having done any STEM degree.

[@dehn6581]

The first point has little new in it - Career guidance is already meant to be in schools - there is a statutory document and career guidance appears in the SEND Code of Practice and similar. Many aren't doing it that well, but it'll take more than more guidance to fix that - we'd need to reconnect schools to wider reality that many senior leaders and trust leaders have long been disconnected from and actually enforce things like Provider Access Legislation. Work experience in a trend that comes and goes, with it currently on the upswing; however, it's often difficult to find placements for the old school week long versions and schools resist alternatives recommended by employers like doing it once a week over a longer period that some colleges already do as school leaders view it as too disruptive. Many kids just find a family member to go with, especially those who want to work in areas they can't access at their ages. The national curriculum already goes well beyond the core subjects and most subjects are overstuffed as countries like to brag about with claims that kids will learn all these things so young, ignoring how many of them learn them well. For England, less than half will get English and Maths at 5, which has been argued to a basic standard. I hear there is talk of slimming down some areas, but I'll believe it when I see it - there is a lot of talk of adding new, but a struggle to get them remove requirements once there.

[@ciandoyle3315]

Wait until they get into college and find half the teachers can barely speak english and its somehow your fault when nobody understands a word theyre saying

[@AidanMacgregor-Personal]

They need to teach kids finances and avoiding scams

[@reggiereggiesauce5755]

Maybe it would help if politicians stopped basing decisions on an Us V Them rhetoric, or if they did, they actually understood who Them is. Labour is supposed to be the party for the working class (not now, Starmer is a Tory in disguise), but winter fuel allowance has been taken away from the elderly, while one of the goals is the recruit more teachers. In this case Us V Them are young people V old people. Maybe if politicians actually understood they don’t need everything they’re ‘gifted’ (yes, we know, Starmer) and would do the proper Labour thing and make sacrifices for the benefit of the working class, we might be a slightly better country. Maybe we can do something about the energy crisis by attaching generators to Kier Hardie’s grave - can’t let the energy given off from the amount he’s rolling in it go to waste.

[@Randomman_4826]

When I was in year 5 (2020-21) there were no French teachers in my Primary School so my teacher who knew no French and due to there only being 1 teacher per year group for primary years had to put on a tutorial from KZbin on how to speak French, then for my 6th year they told some poor teacher who also knew no French to download some files and try speak French with her best French accent. She gave up and just spoke with her heavy Yorkshire accent. I had previously gone to a school where they had a genuine French teacher so at times it felt as if I was teaching my Primary school French teacher how to speak French. Not the other way round TlDr One of my Primary schools didn't have a qualified French teacher so I had to teach my teacher her own lesson. The crisis is disgusting.

[@Dead_Metal]

At least you're in Year 5 when this happened, a few yrs ago, the other GCSE Chemistry class quite literally didn't have a proper teacher in Yr10 and so had to learn as much as they could in Yr11 (in their March mocks they hadn't covered most of Paper 2). And to add insult to injury, for the second half of Yr12 A-level Chemistry everyone who took it didn't have a teacher for 2 of their 6 periods due to lack of staffing available. So my Yr group has been screwed out of chemistry 🙃.

[@yurisei6732]

To be fair that one's just a matter of priority. There's really no value in teaching French in primary school. Even with a proper French teacher, the knowledge doesn't stick because primary school students have no real opportunity to speak French or interest in speaking French. If we want primary school kids to gain the benefits of learning another language, these days we should be teaching them a language they're likely to encounter on the internet or in internet-facilitated hobbies, probably Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. Maybe Spanish.

[@jonevansauthor]

The really silly bit is teaching French at all when it's a dead language, Chinese and Japanese would be useful. Latin is definitely useful. French is really only helpful if you are going to learn half a dozen language and that one is last. Spanish isn't exactly useful but does let you speak to a handful of people. But really any second language not learned to complete fluency is basically a waste of time.

[@yurisei6732]

@@jonevansauthor French is very useful to know if you intend to spend a lot of time in Morocco. Nowhere else really uses it though. And at that point you could just learn Arabic.

[@DanielPugsley-sv5zo]

I teach in a place where more than half the kids have SENs and a fair chunk have EHCPs. They need small groups, it fixes nearly everything. They’re making more progress in weeks than they managed in years in school, and that’s the class sizes and what I do to exploit that advantage.

[@etaokha4164]

Alot of kids raised by parents who never take accountability for their bad parenting that resulted to their children turning violent in school bullying other kids. I don't blame the teachers it's the parents I blame. Parents focus more on being liked by other parents outside of home than actually working on their kids attitude at home. Was it not yesterday a kids was attacked with acid in school?? Where was the parents when their kid left home with something that dangerous to go attack other students in school and did the parents hold that child accountable? Nope you bet instead they blamed the teachers because this parents think it's the teachers responsibility to raise their spoilt brats.

[@dehn6581]

The suspect in yesterday's acid attack outside a London school is a 35-year-old man. I guess we could ask what his parents were up to.

[@ginner33dg]

Investment in education so obviously pays for itself - it's amazing how little funding it actually gets

[@OliveFreedom]

I went to a bad school in a bad area. The subjects and qualifications offered were less than the standard at other schools, which put me permanently behind. For instance, when I went to college, for my courses it was expected that you would have studied triple science GCSE, but my school did not even offer this, only BTEC or double science at best. I was told I would be behind from the very start of term. I also wanted to study French and German at GCSE but this wasn't considered possible at my school, so I could only choose one. When I went to college and university I discovered people from other schools also had subjcets like politics, economics or business at GCSE. How is this all fair in a system which is supposed to be comprised of a "national curriculum" and "state" schools?

[@richardyong535]

There are a lot of good policy that isn't implemented due to being too expensive, it seems labour is gonna need to find a way to raise money first before doing anything else

[@IshtarNike]

Education is an investment and the government isn't fiscally constrained by the physical absence of cash. The bank of England can create the money they need for such things. The government refuse to do so because it would destabilise the choke hold the rich have on power.

[@tedlee7821]

as a south korean, i must say having too few teachers is an enviable problem to have for us because we don't have enough children for the teachers to teach

[@PhilliesNostalgia]

Why would they remove the whip from those MPs who backed, I’m guessing, increasing the child-benefit cap to 3, or scrapping it altogether? That feels horribly shortsighted and really stupid. So if you aren’t in total lockstep with what the party leader wants, you’re gone? That’s not democratic, that’s authoritarian. Glad we don’t have something like this in the US, because our political divisions would probably get worse if you need to have a 100% vote record, or otherwise, you’re gone

[@PeaceandChange]

True.

[@CharlesTysonYerkesOfficial]

The situation is so frustrating, unfortunately, Labour has no plans to remove academisation. Academies have done nothing to benefit schools, they haven’t changed the curriculum, they have only increased costs by purchasing equipment from private companies and not local authorities.

[@maotseovich1347]

Broaden the curriculum? We're struggling to teach kids what order the numbers 1-10 go in and they want to spend less time on maths? Yeah, let's shoot for that 40% adult literacy rate the US has achieved, that'll be great(!)

[@lexcitly]

Shouldn't the more useless subjects get cut completely so there is less need to find teachers with those qualifications?

[@o0alessandro0o]

My Electronics teacher was a physicist, and nobody ever complained about his qualifications. A Maths teacher can be an Engineer, and I doubt anybody will see the difference. For primary school, a teacher with a Pedagogy specialization is preferred, but in terms of knowledge I think any secondary education will suffice. Focusing on specialization is wrong in ways I can't even describe. Focus on teaching: getting the kids interested, getting the information across, giving those young humans the tools they need to succeed in life.

[@beachboysandrew]

Even if Labour could fix them, do they want to? Probably not

[@MsCreepyChan]

The biggest problem schools are facing at the moment is that they get funded based on how well they are doing. Now, this sounds like a good incentive to make schools do better, but what it's actually doing is incentivising schools to NOT report problems. Example: My kid was in school and one of their girl friends was molested by another student. The school's policy was to ignore this, because it would look bad on the reports and they might get funding cut. After the police got involved, they quietly moved the offender to another school, but didn't tell the other school about the incident, meaning he probably molested someone else there. This has been a problem ever since i was in school back in 2008. I mean, i got jumped on the way home from school once by 4 other kids. The schools response? 1 of the 4 kids got 2 days suspension. And that was only after getting the police involved. When there was a problem in school, you didn't go to the teachers, you went to your parents who would go to the local papers. That was the ONLY way to get anything done and from what i have seen, not much has changed in 16 years.

[@anthonypurvis8619]

As a teacher in the North East with 13 years of experience, I have to challenge this idea there is a teacher shortage. in the North East, there was a permanent job advertised in Gateshead last year - there were 300 applicants. Up here there our 5 unis turning out BEd and PGCE students and about 20 SCITT programs. There is o shortage up here and if labour has its way they will make the problem worse. They need to limit the training places in the North East and increase them in the South. Heads here only offer 1 year fixed contracts and get rid of the ECT/NQT every year to keep the costs down. Its scandalous.

[@anthonypurvis8619]

@@eightiesmusic1984 I literally say where. and as I aslo make very clear there is no national shortage. There are regional shortages. I guarantee if they create more training places it will be cash strapped northern unis adding the training places and will make the teacher surplus up here worse and do nothing for the shortage of teachers else where.

[@eightiesmusic1984]

@@anthonypurvis8619 I did not ask you where. I can read. What was the post you claim had 300 applicants? It is not a difficult question.

[@anthonypurvis8619]

@@eightiesmusic1984 I’m curious if you’d speak to someone like that face-to-face. To clarify, the position was a permanent KS2 role, which is rare these days since many headteachers prefer offering fixed-term contracts. This allows them to replace staff after a year with ECTs/NQTs to cut costs. I’ve heard of similar practices happening in secondary schools too. While there might be shortages in London and the Southeast due to low wages, challenging conditions, and high living costs, the situation is very different in the North, particularly the Northeast. Up here, there’s no shortage of teachers. Also, the plan to increase training places will likely benefit cash-strapped northern universities looking to boost their finances. Many graduates from these programs stay local, so we’ll continue to have a surplus of teachers in the region.

[@anthonypurvis8619]

@@eightiesmusic1984 I think I will because it'll annoy you.

[@Alexgreat448]

The first thing that needs to change is the mindest of all the students at schools. I have just finished secondary, and am now in 6th form and let me say that the behaviour of 70% of my year was atrocious. Breaking stuff, bullying teachers and generally distruptive practices were all normal- and i was in set 1. Now imagine what its like in, say, set 4 and below...yeah, its not going to be pretty. Now I think anyone can imagine that most of this behaviour comes from a clear lack of discipline, i think from both school and home. For example, the immigrant kids at my school (that arent gypsies, conversely they are actually encouraged by their culture to not learn due to many, many unfortunate events :( ) would rarely disturb in lessons, and had a generally more positive attitude to learning. This is simply due to the fact that in these poorer countries, 1) the only way to make a good living is to pay attention in lessons and learn, no matter how boring and 2) the kids are (or were at the least) disciplined straight from a young age by the kindergarden and primary school, as was the case with many of my peers back home (that attended various kindergardens in a less good, but not bad part of bucharest) ,and my peers here that are polish, bulgarian and indian all have simmilar stories. This afformentioned 'disciplining' could generally be done by severe punishment, and always telling the parents about the day. Now I'm sure this would'nt have happened everywhere in what are otherwise poor countries, but good kindergardens and primary schools were plentiful. So what is to be done? Well, various measures that could be describes as draconian by some, will have to be implemented. The idea that a positive attitude to learing is the only thing that will get you somewhere in life will have to be introduced from a young age, using tactics simmilar to those of pushing propaganda. Kids are easily impressionable, and if we can instead plant the seeds of not learn= bad and learn=good, then at least kids will be made aware of it from a young age. Secondly, harsher disciplinary action will have to be introduced. From what I know, my school rarely ever included parents in the process of punishing, such as calling them or informing them of the child's behaviour, even if the child was a repeat offender. Now I can understand that kids, being immpresionable as they are, may soak up certain bad behaviours from their parents, such as agression, bullying, etc. And thus, informing an agressive parent that their child is misbehaving, will not be a very good idea, as the parent will either a) not care or b) beat up their kid (not good). So what I propose is a significant investment in social workers that regurarly pay visits to the homes of misbehaving children, and if the parents are found to be particularly bad, then the kid should be taken away ,if necessary, and the parents be placed in some kind of rehabilitation, if necessary, or at the very least given a mandatory course or something to become better, though such a measure may prove insignificant as adults are much, much more opposing to change than their younger counterparts. Currently, to my knowlegde, the only times a knock on the door will come from a social worker will be when the kid is missing from school without satisfactory reason for too long, or if the kid comes all bruised up from home ( happened to a friend when he was 6, he just fell of his bike and had a black eye). Therefore, solving misbehaving students will solve other issues such as a lack of teachers ( teachers wont leave as much as their environment will be better), better performing schools (which will make the government give more money to them, as i believe thats how it works in this country for some reason?), and ultimately give more kids the chance to have a higher paying job, which will lower those on benefits and increase tax revenue, increasing productivity and investment as a consequence. That last bit made it all sound very simple, which would be nice in an ideal world. So yeah, the priority should be getting kids to know the importance of school, and discouraging them from trying to be alcoholic druggies. Because then, my taxes will have to pay for their benefits when theyre 30 insted of paying for the treatment of cancer patients.

[@shinobi5976]

Why is everything so expensive? £175m for 1 mental health practitioner per school in just england???

[@aric7726]

Will you guys cover the university crisis, too?

[@diningroomtableYT]

careers advice and work experince to be introduced? wasnt this already a fucking thing

[@Leo99929]

There's definitely some issues around where we're spending the total budget in what proportions, and also the inefficiency of those systems due to Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy. However I think that the current education system is an evolution of archaic practices that were developed when education was expensive because books were hand written and expensive, so they were read out and you would take notes and that was your education and what your tuition covered. But that concept is ridiculous in a world with internet connected super computers in everyone's pockets and can answer basically any knowledge question in a few seconds. There's now little no value in memorising the exact information. Not that the exam certifies you retain it for longer than an hour anyway. And no point learning how the deep details of a system work (like machine code in programming) when 99.999% of people will never have an opportunity to benefit from that knowledge. We should be able to learn how ever we want and pay a small fee to cover the costs of sitting a standardised exam in which you are allowed to use the internet for anything but live communication to your personal contacts. Also critical thinking skills should be a core subject. It's more important than Maths, Science, or English because it teaches you how to tell if someone is misleading you and people will try to mislead you when ever they stand to profit from it, like during elections.

[@PhilipMarcYT]

"Can Labour fix it?" Now, there's a funny joke. 🤣

[@scarletevans4474]

5:43 why did they got removed over voting for an eligible voting option?? I thought that UK is a democracy? If not, what social system is it then?

[@michaelslinger6903]

Pay for teachers in England is trash in comparison to other countries.

[@thedeemon]

only if you don't look at 90% of countries where it's much worse

[@sueyourself5413]

So... Are they scrapping the 2 child cap?

[@JoshMathewsofficial]

They identified problems, then proposed solutions that look good, but do absolutely nothing.

[@drownedcactus5618]

The answer is no. Somehow they’ll make it worse?

[@aaronsmith9209]

Cuts were brutal on schools, I left just as they started to really bite and even then I noticed school was getting stricter and increasingly authoritarian on what really are petty things like uniforms. I get teaching is a tough job but why are some schools increasingly acting like prisons? Excluding people for the most of ridiculous things like their haircut! When I was at secondary school, most if not all classes had support teachers, classroom sizes weren't allowed above 25 to 28 pupils, the local authority was involved in the day to day running of the school and was there to help for anyone who had additional needs. How much of this is gone now? Austerity was the culprit but academisation and free schools were a huge mistake. The school has a greatly reduced capacity for duty of care now. Channel 4's Ackley Bridge gives a good idea of these issues. What good is excluding a disruptive student when they likely have a load of issues going on in the background and no one is there to help? This is why we need to stop looking at issues in isolation. What if the student has been put in a temporary hotel because the council failed to build enough housing? They can't study even if they want to as living conditions make it impossible. The very long waiting lists at the NHS or the dismissive attitude of the DWP denying people their benefits by default is likely to affect the school student too. Also I think we are still dealing with the Tories disastrous response to the pandemic which was highly disruptive and caused an explosion in mental health problems. All this will take a long time to fix. As for the teachers, we have made it much less attractive. In 2010, when I did my GCSEs, teaching was considered a well respected position on a comfortable salary, now a growing minority need to use foodbanks! As a country we need to stop looking at the cost of things and just put the resources in to improve things. Pay teachers properly, give them the support staff they need, return education to councils, there is a lot to do. But only so much can be done whilst the NHS and public services are broken and housing and the cost of living are too high.

[@EzekielDeLaCroix]

Gee I wonder what else rose in the statistics

[@stevenanderson5811]

i got some things that the government could also do make it stricter in school maybe adding the cane just to make sure that kids that want to mess around will be given a real punishment and i know how about forcing young people to do sports like football boxing and dancing whatever my point is make sure they are doing with their time that isn't going on their phones and god knows what. As someone who is 18 that went to school in the UK I have realised something parents don't WISH to be parents anymore and the system seen as some day cares even in secondary it was a joke they so i believe lets us strip it back to basic kids need to fear their teachers again then no problems they want to play up then they deserve punishments and heavy ones at that and parents should be fined if their kids play up maybe that will learn them to do their jobs. I loved my teachers as for me they were people that believed and made me feel like i could succeed and its just a shame that they cant do anything about lacklustre children and i feel being a bit more stricter will do the work,

[@Spurritfr]

The CANE what the actual hell.

[@leemccabemccabe5627]

I don't think they've made it a lot worse b4 it gets better, he said it himself 100%

[@thetntsheep4075]

The parents of the kids who migrate to state schools might try harder to make them work well for the students, donating money and helping to run events and such.

[@shiningvideo]

This is complete nonsense; kids in England, do very very well in international comparison studies like PISA!

[@jonevansauthor]

Kahn Academy basically solved this fifteen years ago, and the teaching profession has failed to embrace the solution and campaign for it. This is like the football, tennis and cricket taking a long time to adopt cameras to watch lines and stumps to assist the refs with accuracy. Or the US sticking to 120 volt. We hold ourselves back so much as a species, it's humiliating.

[@LEWIS1992]

6500 new teachers?! Hahaha haha! That's like 1 teacher per school. It'll have ZERO impact!

[@adamasaventus]

Why did you title this video 'UK' and then immediately clarify that you mean England. Just write England in that case. UK =/= England. There's yer geography lesson for the day

[@thevis5465]

Because England and english people see the UK as England, the union will never be an equal one for this simple fact and it's why i will never stop voting for the only party that puts scotlands interests at the forefront in Scotland.

[@BlackHack-nx3pp]

Because England is the only part of the UK without a separate government meaning that someone in England has alot less power than someone in Scotland or Wales

[@LennonnCook]

@@thevis5465 You've got your own parliament to fix this kind of thing. Plus, the ruling government of the UK is Labour, hence why he put the UK - if it happens in England, the chances are Holyrood will follow after if it's effective. It really is not that deep nor consequential as it's the ruling government of the entirety of the country.

[@davidioanhedges]

Because it will apply to England Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland - unless the devolved government decides to do differently e.g. Scotland voted to not provide universal free school meals ...

[@thevis5465]

@@davidioanhedges This is entirely false, our education system is different in every way, we have completely different qualifications, schedules, etc.

[@terratime2005]

Did they sample schools in the last week of the year to determine the mean hours worked per week? I’ve logged my hours to my line manager and work 60+ most weeks. Finishing between 9pm and 10pm (starting at 8am) and working between 3 and 6 hours at a weekend. More if I’m marking PPEs. I’ve worked in four schools and the least I’ve done is around 53 hours per week. This can be checked by timetables, duty times and logged working time on the computer / laptop. I’m confident nearly every colleague I have worked with works more than that mean.

[@punditgi]

Time to fix the problem!

[@michaeltunnicliffe4935]

Seems to me like they are missing HUGE problems in the education system which need addressing first. For example, they want to hire 6,500 more teachers. Great idea. Except there are already shortages of teachers. I would know as I have several friends who work as teachers and they all say they are overstretched because they need more teachers but noone is applying. And no one is applying because of 2 reasons. 1, it's a thankless job. Long hours, not enough room for teachers to properly take control over their classes and a constant expectation to work outside of school hours are among the biggest problems. And 2, the financial side of teaching is not worth it. The wages are not enough to warrant the stress, especially when potential teachers are all forced into taking out extortionate loans to cover their university degrees and training. So if the government wants more teachers, they need to give teachers back control to discipline students, reduce the expectations of teachers, raise the wages and reduce or remove tuition fees for teacher training. I also think another massive hole in the education system is actually helping children go head in the appropriate direction. What I mean by this is not all kids need to go to university. There is stress on schools and colleges to force as many students as possible towards further education to make the school look good. But frankly, I would argue that a school preparing kids to enter the workplace is just as, if not more important that preparing them to get into uni. Its not a crazy long time ago since I left school. I left secondary in 2008. And I remember being given all the information and encouragement needed to go to college, but no information or encouragement to get a job. And the same when leaving college. I even remember a teacher being absolutely clueless when a fellow student said they didn't want to go to uni, what should they do to help get them a job. They all want you to go to uni. But that's not ideal for everyone. And the more people in Uni, the more money wasted on loans that will never be paid back, the more students who delay working and thus delay paying taxes. But also the more kids in Uni and college, the more strain is put on said institutions meaning a lesser quality of education. And this all needs to change before GCSEs or whatever the equivalent is these days. Get kids in secondary school learning a real diversity of subjects. I remember too much effort being placed on Science, Maths and English. We had 5 hours a week of each of these, but only 1 hour a week dedicated to DT. And to anyone unaware of what DT is, it's design and Technology and it included woodwork, metal work, plastic work, design, cad cam, textiles, cooking and electronics. They condensed 8 subjects into one and then give you 1/5 of the amount of time that you have for science, maths or english. And then when I came to pick my GCSEs, I had to choose between practical or academic, meaning I could not learn Woodwork and History. So I didn't get a chance to further explore a mix of subjects. And so with such little emphasis on practical skills, is it any wonder we struggle for plumbers, electricians, brick layers, builders and such? I often think that had I not been pushed into the more academic side where i focused on History and Geography, whether I should have done something like woodwork or design. I was never really given a chance to find out if I would have been better at woodwork when I only had 1 hour a week for 1/8th of the school year dedicated to learning woodwork. If the government want to make any real change, get kids doing a larger range of subjects and encourage more kids to go down the line of practical work. Imagine, we could see a huge rise in trade professionals as a result. And these kids can go straight into the work place and immediately start learning about money from the age of 16. And when they start learning about money and start having to pay taxes at an early age, they will be contributing positively to the economy rather than taking out loans at uni and not working until you are 23. And if more people are working and paying taxes, more money for the government, which means more money for the NHS, the police, the armed forces and the education system. I really fail to see how this won't help. Better shape a kids future, get them working sooner, reap the rewards of responsible, tax paying, professionals who can help build homes and fix infrastructure, and also pay taxes to keep vital services running and create a healthier, safer, happier Britain for all. Meanwhile taking stress off of university, making academic students more scarce and thus more sort after, making university education mean something again.

[@Garthaxius]

Without changing the approach and wider strategy of education in a modern society, adjusting all the existing systems with more funding and just doing slightly different things doesn't fix any of the fundamental problems. Why can't we implement systems that work effectively in other countries? Why are we so stubborn to think the only way we can do things better is just more of the same? Who cares about attendance and grades if those grades don't translate to productive, valuable members of society? The only ones getting an effective education are those kids whose parents are wealthy enough to afford private education and tutors. The system is doing exactly what it's designed to do - denying social mobility to those at the bottom of society.

[@-M_M_M-]

Glad to see the ASI being cited 😊💪

[@matthewbaynham6286]

I've got dyslexia and so I wasn't too hopeful that the changes would be any good, however Broadening the Curriculum sounds perfect. People with dyslexia aren't always good at everything, I was always good at mathematics, computers and science, but completely useless at everything else. I'm 49 years old so I went through the education system just as the National Curriculum was about to tighten up the requirements. I had a bit more freedom in my choice of subjects and if I'd been educated a couple of years later I wouldn't have got to university to do my Mathematics degree, because I would have had to do more of the subjects that I'm totally useless at. Education should be flexible to be able to give children what each one needs as an individual.

[@cathallynch1]

One simple issue is that needs and disabilities are increasing, so it makes no sense to reduce budgets.

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

If you can measure it, you can manage and control it. True, but how do you realistically measure the "added value" in a child from their teacher? Successive governments have tried to do just that, leading to so much time in meaningless measurements. Learning has become secondary to the vital task of assessment, just to satisfy politicians.

[@felspawn4841]

the UK is failing, full stop. its failing in pretty much every measurable way. Thank god they left the EU, at least the EU is realizing the problem and course correcting (for the most part). The UK just seems content to double down.

[@justaguy7517]

Ofsted functions perfectly fine. If anything inspections should be random and unannounced to ensure schools are always running up to code and not pandering to inspectors day of. Changing the system because school are underfunded and failing more frequently only obscures the collapse of the education system, it does nothing to help it.