Pupils' poor performance blamed on parents

JUDITH JUDD

Education Editor

Parents' hostility to education is to blame for the poor performance of some children in inner-city schools, according to a report published yesterday.

The report, from the all- party Education Select Committee, says an "anti-education culture" in deprived communities is short-changing children.

According to evidence given to the committee, increasing numbers of parents are being abusive and physically violent to teachers. "While we recognise the many pressures on parents in deprived urban areas, there is no excuse for parents' wilful disregard of their children's education," the study said.

The MPs say some unemployed parents send their children to school late, or fail to send them at all because they do not get out of bed in time. They add that an attitude exists among parents, which says: "Why should the children get up for school when mum and dad do not have to get up?"

But the report says: "We regard the lack of support - or worse - shown by some parents for their children's schools as wholly unacceptable.

"Parents who are indifferent or openly hostile to the school education process are short-changing their own children, and, by increasing the pressure on teachers, hindering the progress of others as well."

Sir Malcolm Thornton, the committee's Conservative chairman, said MPs had visited Japan where a strong pro-education culture existed. "We have found little evidence in our report to suggest that a strong culture of education exists in Britain's inner-city areas."

The MPs believe that too many teachers are having to act as social workers. Sir Malcolm said his most vivid memory from the committee's school visits was of the teacher who said: "I want to be a teacher 100 per cent of the time. I am a social worker for 45 per cent of the time."

MPs described how, on one visit, well-motivated pupils had appealed to committee members to intervene to stop other pupils disrupting the class.

The report says the present four-yearly inspections in the Government's new privatised scheme are failing to stop schools drifting into a downward spiral marked by falling exam results, the flight of parents to other schools and teachers' departures.

Quicker intervention is needed if the spiral is to be reversed. Under the new inspection system run by the Office for Standards in Education, local authority advisers in many places are too busy carrying out inspections to give schools day-to-day support.

The report says the Department for Education should encourage local authorities to maintain school advisory services and adds that good leadership and parental involvement are the key to successful schools.

The report attacks the Government for ending its grant to the Reading Recovery programme which has raised reading standards in inner-city schools where it has been tried. It also urges more money for literacy programmes.

The committee visited 18 schools in Tower Hamlets, London, Bristol, Liverpool, North Tyneside and Stoke-on-Trent.

8 Performance In City Schools, Education Committee Third Report. HMSO; pounds 13.25.