By Understanding major issues in education are crucial for parents, students, and taxpayers. The UK receives thousands of applications from international students every year and has remained a popular destination for education. The world of educators comes with several critical issues.
Although it’s impossible to predict all future educational issues, we can identify major issues in the education sector that persist and affect the education system.
So let’s take a look at some of the biggest challenges faced by education sectors in the UK.
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Budget cuts
The biggest challenge in the UK education system is underfunding. This is one of the challenges that bring out other problems. Due to the pandemic, school resources have been limited in the past year. Some additional expenditure had been incurred on Covid essentials like signage, PPE, digital equipment, and cleaning supplies. However, the £1.4 billion Covid Catch-up budget from the government for schools has turned out to be less than one-tenth of the £15 billion recommended by the education recovery commissioner for England.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), school spending per pupil in England fell by 9% between 2009-10 and 2019-20, considered the largest cut in over 40 years. For several years underfunding has been an ongoing issue in the education sector. Budget deficit schools are often left to decide what to keep and discard among the limited resources. There had been a 258% rise in the number of secondary pupils in classes of 36 and more since the year 2010. As per the London Councils Survey in 2017, 42% of schools had been cutting off teaching staff to save the cost.
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Over-assessment
A certain amount of assessments and tests is essential for consolidating learning. However, the effect of constant formal assessment on both teachers and children is overlooked. A survey has been done on parents of primary school children in England where it was found that most parents have no clue that children undergo statutory tests in five out of seven years that largely focus on Maths and English.
Even parents have agreed that students face too much pressure for standardized testing. 61% of parents say that their children spend most of their time studying and preparing maths and English for SATs. More teaching hours are spent on building skills required for scoring in exams and subjects that carry more weight in the assessment.
A survey in 2019 reveals 80% of headmasters agree that SATs negatively affect the well-being of pupils. Formal assessments also leave negative impacts on schools as well as teachers. Formal assessments tend to have a negative impact both on schools and teachers. The pressure of preparing for “the big test” should never be underestimated.
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Shortage of teachers
The problem of shortage of teachers is because of the budget deficit. Underfunded schools had to downsize staff. The two most common financial pressures in schools are reducing assistant teachers and cutting learning resources. Due to the reduced staff, teachers are often asked to take on extra duties. Extra duties often include teaching additional subjects, cleaning, lunchtime supervision, and more. The growing class size and the shortage of teachers lead to problems like students receiving less individual attention from teachers.
The shortage of teachers has been an ongoing challenge. Subjects, especially science, maths, and languages, have seen the worst shortages of qualified teachers. Many schools struggle with recruiting teachers with degrees in these subjects. It has been found that half of the teachers tend to leave the teaching profession after five years.
The problem of teacher shortages is quite severe among inner-city schools. Students from diverse religions, cultures, and socioeconomic positions require extra support and care, which results in additional stress and workload for teachers. This is why teachers agree to teach at private schools for lower salaries since their job tends to be easier given the less complicated backgrounds and smaller class sizes.
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Inadequate access to technology
Many children in the UK have to work with pen and paper. Electronic devices seemed like a distraction. But it was during the pandemic that technology became a necessity for students. Lack of access to technology often affects the learning of children. This shows how schools are so far behind in preparing children for a future driven by technology. online assignment services, it is tough to find the best law essay help online.
As per the 2020 survey conducted for Lenovo, 65% of teachers require training to utilize technology, and 7% believe commuters are necessary for school students. More than a quarter of schools struggle with offering extra-curricular opportunities for digital skills development. Schools had to take up lessons online during the Covid lockdowns for offering learning resources for different age groups online.
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Inequality
Inequality is considered the most pressing current issue in the education sector at the current time. Children from low-income families suffer most due to the lack of resources in deprived areas both at school and at home. Schools in deprived areas tend to have smaller budgets for electronic equipment and recruiting qualified teachers. As a result, several students lack a proper learning environment which is considered an important factor considering the learning gap that has widened by 46% after the school closures during the pandemic.
WRAPPING UP,
The UK bears extensive difficulties meeting the requirements of a growing and modern workforce. Adequate facilities, funding, and qualified teachers are some of the issues faced by the education sector. We can only hope for improvement in the education system that can improve the lives of students and teachers. Change is necessary for any education system since it helps develop better strategies for achieving moral goals.
AUTHOR BIO:
Alison Lewis is a law professor in one of the top-ranked universities in the UK. She is also associated with MyAssignmenthelp.com, where she offers law essay help solutions. She can also recommend the best online bibliography makers if you require suggestions.
