Schoolchildren in Britain are more likely to be miserable and less likely to think that their lives have meaning compared with children in other countries, according to an influential OECD survey.
Dr Angela Donkin, the chief social scientist for the National Foundation for Educational Research, which conducted the Pisa study in the UK, said “This isn’t just down to the education sector alone to solve, but for the sector to be able to help we need to ensure that mental health provision is properly funded.”
One cause may be that British children ranked next to last among those agreeing that “my life has a clear meaning or purpose,” while the UK was alone in Europe in having more than half of its children reporting that they regularly felt sad. More than one in four British pupils reported being bullied “at least a few times a month,” higher than the OECD average.
What do you think? What should the UK government be doing about this worrying statistic?
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