Teacher numbers are falling, provisions and resources seem to be, widespread delinquent behaviour has been reported to be on the rise, and it seems like they’re refusing more and more to enforce the rules on such behaviour, but if you turn up with the wrong haircut or wearing trainers, all hell breaks loose. Obviously I can’t speak for every single individual school so some may not be like this, but I keep hearing about these issues. Are they real? If so, what is the cause? And what can be done to fix it?
Your country has responded to every financial crisis in recent history with austerity. You left the EU to your financial detriment. Your country is now as poor as the state of Mississippi in the US, that is very bad.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/07/uk-productivity-economy-reform-party/687303/
It’s not as poor as Mississippi lol. When adjusted for local costs and essential out of pocket expenses like healthcare, the UK’s median purchasing power and living standards comfortably exceed those of Mississippi.
Infant mortality rate
UK 4 per 1,000
Mississippi 10 per 1,000
Life expectancy
UK 81 years
Mississippi 71 years
A lot of Mississippi GDP is federal funding.
I’m sure GDP per capita is 2x Mississippi’s
The UK just hit these levels. Mississippi has been this poor a LONG time.
Yeah, sure. There are 4 of the world’s top 10 universities in the UK. It has the 3rd largest tech sector behind USA and China. It has the 2nd largest global financial hub after New York.
GDP per capita tells you nothing. UK has 70m people, Mississippi 3m.
I’ve always thought Lemmy-folk were pretty progressive and attuned to untrue news narratives, but the number of people I’ve met here who think the UK is a tyrannical hellscape, overrun by immigrants where people have zero freedom and much of the country has ‘no go’ areas for white Christians genuinely surprised me. But hey, what do I know, I’ve only lived in the UK for 49 years.
And it wasn’t always poor. In the age of cotton, people made fortunes in Mississippi. When the industry lost its value, the rich took their money and left. Nobody is leaving London, but the rest of the UK? They need to invest in their population’s ability to produce.
Hrm, I seem to recall something else happening at that time that made cotton profitable. Just can’t quite remember what it is…
Plus - the economy of England is two countries: London, and the rest. Massive wealth disparities.
Yup, the article talks about how London is carrying the average.
So you think school issues are primarily a financial issue? Can you explain?
“Teacher numbers are falling”
Teacher’s leave because of lack of pay and a bad working environments. Then schools decided to save money by not backfilling the position.
“provisions and resources seem to be”
cutting teacher resources = more money out of pocket for most teachers for their students. Another reason teacher numbers are falling.
“widespread delinquent behaviour has been reported to be on the rise,”
When parents lose hope and are struggling to survive what’s the point of pushing education? When a teacher loses parental support, student behavior is one of the first things to get bad.
"and it seems like they’re refusing more and more to enforce the rules on such behaviour, but if you turn up with the wrong haircut or wearing trainers, all hell breaks loose. "
Admin and teachers are at a loss on how to reverse the student behavior trend. Without widespread parental support their hands are tied. So they find often focus on “coming down hard” on negative external trends they can identify, the so-called “gang-related” activities.
Well put, very good explanation. Thanks for clarifying
One word: underfunding. Pretty obvious really. Schooling costs money, and like anything else if there’s not enough money to buy the stuff and pay for the people then corners will have to be cut, and corners can only be cut so far before quality suffers
I do agree that funding undoubtedly pays a large role in the issues, but I can’t help wonder if, for example with behavioural issues, it seems like with the rise of youth gangs and youth violence up and down the country, most of which happens outside of school, if there could be other factors at play (obviously delinquents outside of school will become delinquents in school, which further fuels bad behaviour)
Oh, dear.
Would you care to share your media diet with us?
I’m not from the UK so I can’t tell you if you’re being exposed to garbage propaganda, but gangs and youth violence are evergreen topics for at least trashy local news, and usually given an ethnic spin by the more explicitly conservative outlets.
Also see the official government report on the matter and similar matters: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a06eb37c0cc74b4523e4e8c/youth-justice-white-paper.pdf
There’s two approaches you can take to any social problem:
or
You’ll find if you like feeling good about yourself (if you’re doing well), the first option is very emotionally appealing. But if you actually want things to get better, 2 is your only option.
I do prefer option 2 tbh
I’m going to link you to a post that describes the causes and conditions of the current weltanschaung that might escape sociologists. It’s not science, exactly, but I find it a good potential cause for all the social rot we’re experiencing.
https://sh.itjust.works/post/67063299
From another, related angle, we’re entering into some global chaos at the moment. The myth of perennial progress, holding our collective psyches together since the dawn of the Enlightenment/Industrial era, is falling apart. Scientific progress has stalled and, even if it hadn’t, there is no spiritual sustenance to be drawn from examining ever smaller segments of space-time.
I’ve been reading about Gnosticism and alchemy, and apparently this is a recurring pattern in history. If you look at 1-2 AD Europe, you’ll see much the same despair; the Roman Empire was falling apart, the future was uncertain, institutions were failing (and, I might add, internships (ie college) were incurring lifelong debt)… from that chaos we got the highly structured worldview of Christendom, but before that we have a lot of work that is more spritually resonant with the despair of today.
I’m reminded of that Yeats poem: Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.
Certainly:
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESZwHrOzAVAJkpobk_nu4xcybWcR1HRuKTT1mX6OeDeZuOAy5GMoqNjFshBTgRE4sfMwdEGuJZ0d0J8U81Caq_ZmuA-x_-ctgK33rXs2XtAjt7R_WJEIkVjJS29fDB3Wy6pJCPoetDmII
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESswEB6zswFZMtrnuJ89CJE6h0Pn0JgpEOn3C3ColrbFNIoas3Z_Uomf4MWshmODsix3EKYESuzFk5xPeSc34-iAdA17jb0WVJmLRpYzCVXEiO0eTpgl_CICxB3jl9fW08dR8iRmjXzErpI_VXXpoxMPDqpFemoXMHVU-fY7s0jXjSyGvtv_87YEYojPBHsw8_i1e5vS1z-w-khYq1iz18lyT8IiA1V5c64KHd4gvdirYEN6VJkg
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESnwEB6zswFdKjytCufcicUz2YoCCDq91pFaejgQ8UApyAjye4k4ZYAORpofXFbrQUDYL5na3uvzxdKFXjR0Y6UN_y_T3CxKT5uHFxD4b3ajf5SvjWxJA9PLrLAGvFr-tKyfwIlowidEZMtkFT4-ydUS0pgq5Cx0x9XKincLGUuNRyv-hpCh-4H-lNJ5xBBjxs0T6V_rVQzqMtLPLBvqdhf44
I mean, what channels do you watch, what papers do you read, what podcasts/radio do you listen to?
Podcasts/radio, none. I read the news (BBC, guardian, itv, etc.) plus government guidance documents.
Edit: oh and scientific journals/articles
Guardian’s pretty much the only criticism of the United States I read, and I live there. I imagine they’re pretty good in their home country.
I don’t know much about the beebs or itv, though.
How do the scientific journals find their way into the mix? Do you seek them out per-subject-area or do you just read them as they come along?
If you’d like to share, there’s a good lemmy’s for that: wildfeed and goodreads (or longreads?)…
In addition to all the commentors talking about the actual funding of schools and pay for teachers. There is a well established link between the financial stability of a home and the performance of students that come from it. Struggling families have struggling students.
Social issues often are financial at their roots.
Good point
There’s also a huge dropoff in academics when there’s a concentration of poverty.
Mixed income schools with mixed income classes aren’t nearly as affected. The more poverty in a classroom the harder it is for those struggling students to get the time and attention they need.