Commenting on "The forgotten: how White working-class pupils
have been let down, and how to change it", a report by the
House of Commons Education Committee, Dr Mary Bousted,
Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union,
said:
"It is important to understand that social class is the biggest
determinant of educational success or failure. Too many children
and young people are disengaged from the curriculum. It is time
to acknowledge the link between our current curriculum and
assessment approach and the de-motivation of thousands of
students.
“We believe the experiences of working-class students in
education do merit much greater focus. They suggest a case for an
overhaul of the assessment system and bold thinking on issues
such as extended schools and restoring the services around a
school which families need. We need to extend youth clubs, boost
mentoring programmes, and think about vocational pathways and
getting a much better balance back into the curriculum.
"With 4.3 million children trapped in poverty, the report should
do more to acknowledge the impact of poverty and the huge
challenge that poverty poses for schools. Whilst schools can make
a difference, they can't make the difference on poverty.
“The NEU believes that experiences and stereotypes around class
and ethnicity are inter-related, and we must therefore support
schools to think about sex, class and ethnicity. Indeed, from the
report’s own evidence, it is Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children
whose attainment and entry to higher education needs the most
attention, and findings for Black Caribbean children on Free
School Meals are insignificantly different to white children on
FSM.
"Making critical statements about teacher quality in poorer
areas, as this report does, obscures the real discussion about
what heads and teachers in high-poverty schools actually need in
order to champion and empower learners. The school accountability
system must understand the context for different schools. We
certainly don't support more punitive sanctions as a route to
retain teachers.
"The report should have explored whether an average of £50 per
pupil will be enough to support their recovery. This does not
match the commitment our international neighbours are making to
their children - the Netherlands and the United States are
investing £2,500 and £1,600 per pupil respectively.
"We are worried about the stealth cuts to Pupil Premium funding
that will leave almost all schools struggling financially, with
pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds being the hardest hit. This
will undermine the life chances of working-class students.
"It is deeply unhelpful to try and make it harder to talk in
schools about racism, which seems to be one intention of the
report. Racism is endemic across society and in workplaces and
nearly half of Black children are living in poverty. Racist
content is being targeted at young people online in working-class
areas across the country and so all schools must talk proactively
about racism, including tackle racist bullying, in
age-appropriate ways. We think a proper role for Government would
be to share good practice about how to tackle racism using
education, and how to develop teachers' skills around
poverty-proofing the school day. The NEU has published guidance
on this.
"Both challenging racism and empowering all working-class
students should be at the heart of this next phase of recovery
education, after Covid. We should be prepared to ask big
questions about how to redesign education to respond to these
inequalities."
