By Daniel Hordon
Common sense and logical thinking shows that recent reform in the education system can be blamed for the mental health epidemic among teens.
Government hypocrisy is nothing new. Parliament after parliament and government after government, contradiction in policy and agenda continues to exist with one of the most prominent of current times being those in educational reform and mental health treatment among teens. While government continues to push both policies separately and invest in both, some common sense and logical thinking shows that recent reform in the education system can be blamed for the mental health epidemic among our teens.
Since the formation of the policy to reform GCSEs by then Education Secretary Michael Gove, government have pushed forward with newly graded 9-1 exams with an emphasis on final exams for the method of testing. This has seen the abolition of coursework and controlled assessment in subjects such as English Language, Literature and the Sciences and a change to the qualification being graded based on 100% exam. This creates unnecessary levels of stress in students to perform in exams and be able to demonstrate their learning over 2 years within 2 hours; something which seems illogical. In the run up to exam season, schools are forced to place stress on to students, something which is damaging the mindsets of thousands of teens.
Even at SATs level for students as young as 10 there is an increased focus on testing. As recently as last week it was said that an increased number of parents would be withdrawing their children from the exams. In an article for The Independent, the campaign group Let Kids be Kids said in an interview: “Teaching unions are right to suggest there’s a moral basis for boycotting these high stakes tests – so widely recognised as being pointless and damaging – but parents want action now.”. The SATs exams serve little focus and simply place the stress of exams and revision onto primary school children. In a survey seen exclusively by The Guardian last May it was revealed that 82% of Primary School Head Teachers (or those in equivalent roles) reported an increase the in the number of reported mental health issues in students.
Not only do the mental health side effects of these tests appear to be widely accepted but the content of the tests also seem to be irrelevant and unuseful. The SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) aspect of the English exams expects students to be able to answer questions on subordinating conjunctions and possessive pronouns (these were both topics questioned in the 2017 paper available on the government website). I, for one, don’t know what either of these and we certainly should not expect this of 10 year old students who are spending time revising rather than being children and having stress-free childhoods.
As well as students, teachers also are now being placed under greater pressure to perform. In January the Liberal Democrats compiled information from a mass freedom of information request which found that 3,750 teachers across the country had been signed off for long term sick leave due to mental illness, anxiety and work pressures. That equates to 1 in every 83 teachers being signed off for mental health issues and is up by 5% on the year previous. How we can allow our education system to create a culture of mental health problems in both students and teachers is ridiculous.
Over the past few years the government has increased funding for mental health and social care (despite overall cuts to the NHS) and invented a hypocritical stance on mental health in schools. The government also want to train teachers to be better at spotting developing mental health problems in students, something which will only increase teacher workload and stress and would not have to be done if (as it should be) the education system itself was changed to reduce levels of mental illness in schools. The curriculum should be changed back to how it previously was with an emphasis on coursework to allow students to thrive in their education without the stress of pressure of exams and an exam season.
These current levels of government hypocrisy are not only idiotic but are counter-intuitive with increased funding in mental health treatment as well as in these new stress-causing exams and initiatives such as training teachers to spot mental health problems - something which should be the job of doctors. If the government really are serious in their pledge to tackle increasing levels of mental health in schools then changes need to be made to how the education system is run and how we treat mental health.
READ MORE LIKE THIS...
READ MORE BY...
Comments