British education system's problems persist despite investment

LONDON LETTER: After 12 years of sizable sums pumped into the system under Labour, significant difficulties remain with learning…

LONDON LETTER:After 12 years of sizable sums pumped into the system under Labour, significant difficulties remain with learning and discipline, writes MARK HENNESSEY

IN THE eyes of his mother, McKenzie Dunkley is simply boisterous. In the eyes of his teachers in Ashton-on-Ribble in Preston in Lancashire, he was simply uncontrollable. So they expelled him.

The decision by the Sacred Heart Primary School has reopened a debate in the United Kingdom about school discipline. Up to a dozen five-year-olds have been expelled in the last year, even though the total number of expulsions is falling.

The boy started school in September, but immediately caused problems.

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He was suspended and sent home on four occasions before headmistress Carol Seagraves finally lost patience with him last week, claiming his parents would not co-operate.

He has trouble concentrating, does not do what he is told and is disruptive in class, while classroom doors have had to be modified to prevent him getting out, according to a behavioural plan drawn up by his teacher.

However, his mother Shelley has furiously and publicly criticised the school's move, insisting that it was up to teachers there to "help him settle" and that they simply did not know "how to deal with him".

In 2008, 383,830 suspensions, some short, some long, were imposed in British primary, secondary and special schools last year, and 43,290 of those occurred among primary school pupils aged between four and 11.

Boys are three times more likely to be suspended than girls, but pupils with special needs are more than eight times more likely to be expelled than those who do not - a figure that some teachers warn is merely storing up trouble for later.

Just over 8,000 pupils were expelled, nearly a thousand of them primary students, though it must be remembered that there are nearly 7.5 million pupils in first and second-level education.

The problem is not just with discipline.

Standards in the best schools bear comparison with the best anywhere, but despite 12 years of substantial investment under Labour, significant problems remain elsewhere.

Between 2000 and 2007, the United Kingdom dropped from fourth to 14th in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development league table in science; from seventh to 17th in literacy and from eighth to 24th in mathematics.

This week, top British business leaders, including Mark and Spencer chief Stuart Rose and Tesco's Terry Leahy both warned that many school-leavers were not fit for work.

Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry, the Marks and Spencer head said of some school-leavers: "They cannot do reading. They cannot do arithmetic. They cannot do writing."

Having recently described standards as "woefully low", Mr Leahy said Tesco had to spend too much of its time teaching newly hired British staff how to count and write sufficiently well so that they can do their jobs.

Labour has certainly spent money. The education budget has increased by 75 per cent, but hundreds of thousands emerge annually from schools without getting five GCSE grades - deemed to be a basic result.

More than a quarter of the boys who left school in 2006 did not get a single GCSE, while 21 per cent of those aged 14 had the reading age of a seven-year-old, according to an analysis by the centre-right think tank, the Bow Group.

Poverty explains some of the issues, but not all. Last year, just 79 boys of the 75,000 pupils who received free school meals got three A levels - the passport to a place in the best university courses. Just under half of all white British boys who qualified for free meals reached the minimum standard in English and maths, compared with a 71.8 per cent average for those from better-off backgrounds.

And this year's result is marginally worse than the year before. Boys from Chinese, Irish, Indian and mixed-white and Asian backgrounds receiving free meals did best, according to statistics from the Department for Children, Schools and Families this week.

In the past, black pupils on free meals have tended to perform more poorly than their white counterparts in the survey, but this year, 51.6 per cent of them reached the minimum maths and English standards.

Girls continue to perform better than boys. Some 74.4 per cent of girls receiving free meals - given to children whose parents earn below £16,000 - reached the basic standards. The gap between boys and girls is widening.

In response, schools minister Vernon Coaker pointed out that nearly 100,000 more 11-year-olds of all backgrounds were reaching the basic maths and English grades than occurred before Labour won power in 1997.

This year, 600,000 pupils aged between seven and 15 will get one-to-one tuition in the core subjects if they are falling behind, while "early child intervention programmes" are being used to target six-year-olds who are in danger of falling behind.

Back in Preston, McKenzie Dunkley's parents, still declaring that their son is "a loveable little boy" who has been wronged, are now trying to find a school for him. So far, nobody has come to their aid."