- "A great number of parents are simply not interested
in supporting their children..."
-
-
- Children are starting school less well prepared than
ever because parents are failing to raise their youngsters properly, according
to the Government's Chief Inspector of Schools.
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- In an interview with The Telegraph, David Bell, the head
of Ofsted, said that too many children were receiving a "disrupted
and dishevelled" upbringing. As a result the verbal and behavioural
skills of the nation's five-year-olds were at an all-time low, causing
severe difficulties for schools.
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- Mr Bell said that one of the key causes was the failure
of parents to impose proper discipline at home, which led to poor behaviour
in class.
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- Another serious concern was the tendency to sit children
in front of the television, rather than talking and playing with them.
This meant that many were unable to speak properly when they started school.
-
- "It is difficult to get hard statistical evidence
on what is happening across the country," said Mr Bell, "but
if you talk to a lot of primary head teachers, as I do, they will say that
youngsters appear less well prepared for school than they have ever been
before.
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- "For many young people school is the most stable
part of what can be quite disrupted and dishevelled lives. This should
worry us because if children don't all start at broadly the same point,
we should not be surprised if the gap widens as they go through the education
system."
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- Mr Bell, whose comments coincide with the start of the
new school year, said that although classroom standards were rising, parents
were still not doing enough to support teachers.
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- "There is evidence that children's verbal skills
are lacking. We should encourage parents to talk to their children and
give them a whole range of stimulating things to do and not just assume
that the television, or whatever, will do all that for them."
-
- He added that the deficiencies of pupils starting school
could have lasting effects, particularly where parents continued to fail
to offer support to teachers.
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- " Primary schools can motivate and contain youngsters,
but if those youngsters do not have the proper basic literacy and numeracy
skills when they go to secondary school, they will drift off the rails."
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- Such pupils were an "almost intractable" challenge
that schools alone could not be expected to deal with, he said.
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- "If children are not encouraged to turn up regularly
at school, if casual non-attendance is condoned at home, that makes it
difficult for school. If there is a sense that the standard of behaviour
set by the school is not supported at home, that makes it difficult.
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- "If schools set homework and encourage out-of-school
activities but no encouragement is given at home, that makes it difficult."
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- Monica Galt, the head teacher of King's Road primary
school in Manchester, said that many children started school with minimal
social skills. "It is not just verbal skills, they seem to have no
notion of danger or idea how to sit still," she said. "Many can't
fasten buttons or use a knife and fork.
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- "We start them with spoons and wean them on to other
cutlery. Some children have never sat at a table because their parents
let them eat their tea sitting on the floor in front of the televison."
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- David Hart, the general secretary of the National Association
of Head Teachers, said: "Too many are starting school without basic
social skills and simply do not know how to communicate. This puts enormous
pressure on teachers.
-
- "A great number of parents are simply not interested
in supporting their children or working with the school. These parents
are giving their children a raw deal."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2
003/08/31/nedu31.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/08/31/ixportaltop.html
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