UNITED KINGDOM
Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
A former head of the UK Public Service says the country’s education system is “addicted to exams”, fuelling stress, anxiety and failure in schools across the country.
Lord O’Donnell (pictured) called for the UK’s current examination system to be overhauled.
His warning comes after research into young people’s mental health in England found 20 per cent of girls and 10 per cent of boys in the 17–19 age bracket had self-harmed or tried to kill themselves.
Lord O’Donnell said measuring success by exam results was fuelling stress, anxiety and failure among pupils, teachers, and schools.
“It’s clear from what we know that improving kids’ wellbeing is a much better way of improving their lives than improving their scores in these exams,” Lord O’Donnell said.
“We are sleepwalking into a deepening crisis when it comes to the mental health of kids and we need to drastically change the way we assess kids.”
He said it was a fundamental thing about what constitutes a successful life.
Comparing the UK with the Netherlands, Lord O’Donnell said the latter was “miles ahead” of the UK “on literacy, numeracy and science, and the same is true of Finland, where they start primary school later”.
“We are getting something wrong,” he said.
Lord O’Donnell, who served as Britain’s most senior Public Servant under three Prime Ministers, said current mental health services were not good enough.
“There are plenty of people with diagnosed mental health issues having to wait far too long,” he said.
“We need more resources in this area.”
Lord O’Donnell’s remarks came on the same day that the Lagos State Government in Nigeria released figures indicating that 100,000 of its PS employees were affected by mental illnesses.
Newly appointed State Head of Service, Folasade Adesoye said this should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
London, 19 January 2019
