Pupils sitting the first external summer exams for three years have been telling schools saying they don’t feel like taking them and asking if they can sit them “next week". Dr Llinos Jones, headteacher of Ysgol Bro Myrddin in Carmarthenshire, said schools have a task ahead stressing the importance of education to parents and children after pandemic closures and online lessons.
“We are seeing, for the first time, with external exams, children phoning in saying 'sorry, we don’t want to do it this week, we want to do it next week'. Well, no, the situation does not allow you to do external exams next week. Peoples’ attitude to education has changed during the pandemic.”
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Giving evidence on the problem of persistent and high school absence across Wales Dr Jones told a Senedd committee that some children were missing lessons because attitudes to education have changed in the last two years of Covid. Children and their parents did not think education was as important as they did before schools shut.
More than one in 10 children - and up to twice that in some schools - are missing lessons on average across Wales. Headteachers have warned this will have dire consequences on future aspirations and life chances.
The Senedd’s Children Young People and Education Committee is holding an inquiry into school absences and invited Dr Jones, and others, to give their views from inside schools. “Pupils' attitude towards education is responsible for some of these absences. I think the balance between life and work has changed. I don’t think children and parents think education is as important as it used to be,” the head of Ysgol Bro Myrddin told the committee meeting on June 23. “We have work to do to convince parents how important education is.”
Questioned by a number of MS on the committee she and others warned that some pupils hoped to continue working remotely, but blended teaching was too much pressure on the workforce and could not continue. Teaching online was more than just recording a class, the committee was told.
“Many pupils think they can continue to work online. They like the idea of learning from home. They are still under the impression that is continuing. And because there are so many absences some schools have continued with that online,” said Dr Jones, who is also a representative for teaching union UCAC.
“It is a very difficult situation. Our school has appointed a new inclusion officer. We see so much anxiety about the school environment, not just exams. They feel they cannot cope with large groups of people and full corridors and classrooms because they have been working from home for a very long time.”
The committee heard that schools need more staff to help encourage children back to face to face lessons. This would involve support staff to also work with families.
Hannah O’Neill, NEU district secretary for Blaenau Gwent and NEU executive member for Wales, told the committee: “It is a workload issue. Some teachers are still juggling both what they teach in the classroom and online. What they teach in the classroom is not transferable to online. The feedback is that teachers are under huge pressure also providing online work.”
Menai Jones, policy and casework official from the NASUWT teaching union, said it was not possible for teachers to continue providing online and face to face lessons, and if policy makers wanted to continue remote lessons more staff would be needed to do that.
“If it is going to continue to be Welsh Government policy to support children at home the extra investment is needed and the current system is not sustainable.”
Schools cannot manage absence alone and need “social work and local authority support” to work with families, Mary van den Heuvel, NEU Cymru policy officer told the committee.
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