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Schools told to monitor pupils' health and homes
Dominic Hayes, Education Correspondent03.07.08
Schools and local authorities are to be made accountable for tackling drug abuse, pregnancies and obesity among pupils under measures to improve "wellbeing".
Schools Secretary Ed Balls will today publish guidance which requires teachers to track pupils using 18 new indicators, including levels of bullying, neglect and home life.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families insisted schools were not being asked to solve society's problems. But headteachers said schools could not be held responsible for the "ills of all society".
Mr Balls said: "Good schools have always supported the development of their pupils in the round, and helped them achieve success in their exams and good qualifications as a result.
"In fact, I have never been to a school that is doing a great job in looking after the wider needs of its pupils without seeing the benefits to their learning."
All schools would be bound by the so-called "duty to cooperate" with police, social services and other professionals, he added. But National Association of Head Teachers' general secretary Mick Brookes expressed concern over the responsibilities being put on schools.
He said: "We see an increasing apparent responsibility for the ills of all society being planted onto schools. The danger of that is of course that they will be distracted from their core task which is good quality education."
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Setting aside the fact that teachers are (as a result of Education being a political football) under more than enough pressure, what qualifies them to express an opinion as to a pupil's home environment? If one considers the misjudgements made by professionals who are trained to make such assessments, isn't it just a tad unfair to expect teachers to do this?
- Marie Pestano, Worcester Park, London
