The growing need among university students for counsellors, at a time of dwindling counselling services, is a significant national problem (Report, 12 May). Thankfully, many young people in higher education are articulate enough to advocate for more services, singly, in groups and through organisational channels. According to the House of Commons statistics collated this February, 963,000 young people are Neets (not in education, employment or training), almost one in seven people aged 16-24. Self-harm, substance use and especially a tragically early death are graver public health issues in this voiceless population. In their past education history, Neets were more likely to have been eligible for free school meals and to have been been excluded from school. In terms of possible social disadvantage, Neets are more likely to be disabled and to come from ethnic minorities. Looked at another way, almost half the nation’s 19-year-olds who have a disability have been Neet. Over half of Neets are young women, and the most telling statistic is the number of these females who were mothers by the age of 19. In general, a clearly defined population of almost a million in England has multiple risk factors for mental illness. Who will fight for more services for them?
Woody Caan
Duxford, Cambridgeshire
• The student call for more counselling in universities is reflected in further and sixth-form education. Counselling services across FE are seeing unprecedented and escalating demand but precious little in the way of extra resources. As Tory funding cuts hit, some college services have been shortsightedly shrunk or even axed completely, leaving students with few options in the community, where austerity measures have overstretched mental health services and sunk charities. As for NHS therapy via the IAPT scheme, this often means waiting a long time for not very much at all. What a terrible message our young people are getting – in an increasingly complex world, we value your potential for work, but not your capacity to feel.
Andy Rogers
(Counsellor and service coordinator in further and higher education), Basingstoke, Hampshire
• The NSPCC’s figures that show the number of young people in Britain seeking counselling over exam stress has increased by 200% in recent years (Report, 14 May) are extremely concerning. Schools must have a duty to support their students, but the stark reality is that many schools do not have the networks in place to do so.
This underlines the need to ensure that there is enough of a children’s workforce to handle the rise in demand. Educational psychologists, for example, address a vast range of educational issues including emotional wellbeing and mental health, and they identify the specific support a child may require and advise teachers (and other professionals) on ways to tailor their services to address the child’s individual needs.
But this support simply will not be forthcoming if education support services continue to be stripped to the bone and stretched to breaking point. Educational psychology services are a case in point.
The children’s workforce is overworked and becoming increasingly fragmented, potentially leaving a huge number of vulnerable and stressed young people without access to much-needed services, putting them at considerable risk.
Kate Fallon
General secretary, Association of Educational Psychologists
• The 2014 national curriculum document borrows Matthew Arnold’s statement from Culture and Anarchy (1869) that culture involves “getting to know … the best that has been thought and said in the world”. Arnold did not intend that pupils should be rigorously examined in this knowledge. Indeed, it seems clear he intended that this cultural knowledge should encourage “fresh and free thought” and not be learned “mechanically”. In the same text Arnold warns against “the great dangers of cramming little boys [sic] of eight or 10 and making them compete for an object of great value to their parents” and “the dangers of cramming and racing little boys for competitive examinations”.
Peter Scales
Elvaston, Derbyshire
• Universities deserve credit for their work to reduce the stigma attached to student mental illness despite dwindling resources, but staff mental illness is also in dire need of attention. Our recent health survey revealed that 83% of university staff suffered stress, 67% anxiety and 45% depression in the past two years. The University and College Union found that stress levels relating to workload in higher education are even greater than levels for the British working population as a whole. In order to create an environment that truly enables effective learning, investment is needed in health and wellbeing support not just for students, but for staff too.
Julian Stanley
Chief executive, Teacher Support Network Group
• I have 30 years’ experience as headteacher of three different schools in Kent. What Gaby Hinsliff says is so true (Opinion, 15 May), but as well as Sats children here have the 11-plus together with entrance exams for the grammar schools. They truly are tested to destruction.
It doesn’t have to be like that. Instead of thinking about programmes and tests, begin by thinking about children and how best they learn. By practising learning they will come to understand, and teachers are there to help. Fundamental to learning is the precious skill of choosing, of making responsible decisions: difficult but vital. Children must be encouraged to choose within their capacity to choose. Nor are teachers know-alls; they are learners too, and so are parents and governors, so schools should be where everyone comes to learn.
Parents worry that they won’t know the “basics”. Most basic of all is being a rounded human being, confident in who you are. Next is the confidence that you are a problem solver, that being a learner you will use the traditional disciplines, because how else would you be able to find the answers?
Children can read expectations like well-trained dogs. They soon know being successful is important and that that means remembering what to know. When that happens learning is dead.
It is deeply ironic that parental choice was sold as power to parents but what we see is chronic alienation. Gaby Hinsliff has said it all.
Geoffrey Marshall
Pembury, Kent
• Your article regarding exam stress among pupils taking GCSE and A-level exams was sad to read and, given the huge number seeking help, must be taken seriously by all involved in their education, including parents.
As a state school teacher and university lecturer of many years, I think that the main cancer at the centre of our educational system is the fear of the league tables. Teachers are under great pressure to ensure that pupils get good grades and this can have a detrimental effect, meaning that many teachers teach to the exam and may put additional pressure on their pupils to do well.
In certain subjects, teachers have been known to cheat when testing oral skills. I taught a student who had passed her GCSE French with a grade C and admitted to me after a few weeks that her result didn’t reflect her ability. During the oral exam her teacher had paused the recorder and given her the correct answers.
Horrified at first, I then had a certain sympathy for the teacher, who was so afraid that her pupils wouldn’t get good grades that she was willing to take the risk of losing her job.
League tables are not a good way of assessing the success of a school. Pupils who have private tuition to improve their grades or take on extra subjects outside the school curriculum will inflate the school’s results. League tables put extra strain on both teachers and pupils and should be abolished immediately.
Lorraine Haldane
Senior lecturer in French (retired), Hove, Sussex
• I am a recently retired teacher who has spent the last few years doing supply teaching in local academies. Ever since Baker’s reactionary school revolution, I’ve seen the morale and professional autonomy of teachers nosedive. Latterly, with Gove’s deformation of English schooling, I’ve witnessed school governance and pressures on teachers and students reach crisis levels. We have the most over-monitored, over-assessed, stressed and demoralised students that I have experienced since starting teaching in 1972. Teachers are on a permanent Ofsted visit footing, which saps already battered reserves of resilience and wellbeing. The atmosphere in schools is becoming toxic – they are cracking under the combined assault of league tables and a punitive inspection regime. It is no wonder that our students are suffering acute anxiety and depression. We need to learn from cultures similar to ours. In Finland assessment is infrequent and appropriate and teachers have trusted professional autonomy over curriculum and pedagogy. Trying to ape schooling in places like Shanghai (the Pisa statistics from there are very dubious) is not sensible. Levels of stress and anxiety among Chinese students are similarly catastrophic.
Philip Wood
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
