The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Poverty to blame for crisis in classrooms
Links between poverty, attainment and pupils’ bad behaviour puts off recruits
Scotland’s teacher recruitment crisis has been blamed on the “intolerable burden of poverty”.
Fife teacher Kevin Campbell said deprivation is chief among the reasons for behaviour in schools reaching an alltime low and severely affecting the recruitment and retention of teachers.
The Levenmouth Academy teacher revealed he witnessed every day the consequences of a community living with poverty and issues with drugs, alcohol and violence.
He claimed the effects are made worse by “never ending cycles of budget cuts”.
Mr Campbell is president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association and addresses its annual congress in Crieff on the issue today.
He said: “Pupils are extreme in their disrespect for staff and each other. There are severe issues with drugs and many pupils are unable to control their violence. Staff are unable to cope, learning and teaching is way from being top of the agenda.
“The consequences of poverty are exacerbated by never ending cycles of budget cuts. Support services such as specialised pupil support, behaviour, sense impairment and English as a second language, are virtually nonexistent.”
Mr Campbell said teachers are continually being put in unacceptably stressful conditions as workloads spiral.
“To do our job right we need proper funding, time to teach, resources and experts to cater for the complex and diverse issues children can suffer.
“There are direct links between poverty, attainment and behaviour. We need the government to tackle these issues directly.
In January Scottish councils had to readvertise 2,275 teaching posts they had been unable to fill.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said most pupils behave well in school and teachers should not have to tolerate disruptive behaviour.
“Our refreshed guidance to prevent exclusions places greater importance on preventative approaches. We are also committing £750 million in this parliament to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap and ensure every child has an equal chance to succeed.