Eight out of 10 teachers have students living in poverty, ATL finds
Janaki Mahadevan
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Nearly 80 per cent of education staff say they have students who are living in poverty, a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has found.
A poll of more than 600 teachers also revealed that four in 10 respondents think poverty has increased among pupils since the recession began three years ago.
The survey showed that 80 per cent of staff said students living in poverty come to school tired, another 73 per cent said children arrive hungry and 71 per cent said children living in poverty lack confidence.
Craig Macartney, a secondary school teacher from Suffolk, said: "More children from middle- to lower-income families are not going on school trips and these families find it difficult to meet the basic cost of living.
"A family with two or three teenage children who has one earner who loses hours, or their job, will struggle to reach the minimum income to pay for basics. This will get worse as the impact of the cuts affects families. The number of young people with mental health problems has been on the increase in the past three years."
Anne Pegum, a further education teacher in Hertfordshire, said: "We have students who miss classes because they cannot afford the bus fare or cost of other transport to get to college. We have students who miss out on meals because they do not have money to pay for them and in some cases then feel unwell and have to be helped by our first aiders."
Eight in 10 education staff said they believe poverty has a negative impact on the educational attainment of students within their school or college, the main effects being under-achievement and lack of pupil motivation or aspiration. Staff believed other significant impacts of poverty on educational attainment were lack of a quiet place to study at home, pupils not doing their homework, pupils unable to concentrate and higher absence levels.
ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: "It is appalling that in 2011 so many children in the UK are severely disadvantaged by their circumstances and fail to achieve their potential.
"What message does this government think it is sending young people when it is cutting funding for Sure Start centres, cutting the education maintenance allowance, raising tuition fees and making it harder for local authorities to provide health and social services?
"The government should forget empty rhetoric about social mobility and concentrate on tackling the causes of deprivation and barriers to attainment that lock so many young people into a cycle of poverty."
