At around six years old, children’s social background has overtaken their natural ability as the main predictor of success in education.
Their chances of doing well are skewed before they reach reception class. Detailed research and school gate chatter concur on this point: the biggest problems in our education system have their roots outside the classroom.
The point is made plainly in today’s Observer by Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers: “Too many children start school without the social and verbal skills to be able to take part in lessons and to behave well.”
At its annual conference this week, the ATL will highlight declining standards in children’s behavior, for which parents, Dr Bousted argues, do not take enough responsibility.
Parents would agree, it is their children’s education that is jeopardized when a minority disrupts the class. Often disruption can be handled by good teaching. But not always; not when bad behavior is learnt at home and encouraged by parents. This is not exclusively a class issue. Wealthy and poor parents alike undermine teachers’ authority by refusing to accept that their offspring are capable of doing wrong. But there is also a correlation between poverty and households struggling to provide an environment conducive to learning.
It was partly in recognition of that fact that the Department of Education became, in 2007, the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Responsibility for issues of children’s well-being was amassed in one portfolio. (The move also created an empire for Gordon Brown to bestow on his ally, Ed Balls.)
Bundling up schools and children’s social services might look in Whitehall like clever joined-up government. But on the front line it conflates two different jobs. Teachers are not qualified to be, nor do they necessarily want to be, social workers. But for many years now, schools have been increasingly expected to fill gaps in children’s development left by inadequate parenting. Since these obligations distract from traditional pedagogy, putting performance targets at risk, the inspection regime has learnt to account for them in scores awarded for “contextual value added”. A high CVA score is a school’s compensation for having to deal with children who, for whatever reasons, are deemed hard to teach.
The policy spheres of education, public health and social intervention are merging. Perhaps, ultimately, it is right that schools should evolve into more than educational institutions. They could reach out in their communities to provide places where children can experience much-needed stability, trusted authority and a nurturing environment. But that means a revolution in the way schools are run and staffed.
Though teachers should take on some pastoral duties, they cannot shoulder the entire social burden that comes from irresponsible parenting. Teachers are trained primarily to teach. They cannot effect radical social change alone at the chalk face.