The Dumbing Down: Roughly A Third Of UK Children Don't Know How To Read A Book, Are Not Potty-Trained And Lack Other Basic Developmental Skills
Staff also report around 28% of children started school unable to eat and drink independently.
The following report is by Sky News:
Almost a third of children who started reception last year were not able to use books correctly, sometimes even trying to swipe or tap them like a smartphone, a survey has found.
Around one in four were not toilet trained, amid warnings more children are struggling with basic life skills.
In an annual survey of primary school staff by early years charity Kindred Squared, teachers estimated 26% of the children in their reception class this year were having frequent toilet mishaps, rising to more than one in three (36%) in the North East.
Staff also report around 28% of children started school unable to eat and drink independently.
Over half of staff said children’s and parents’ excessive screentime was a key factor in children not being ready for school.
It comes amid a government push to increase the proportion of children arriving in reception “school ready”, with developmental milestones including basic language skills, being able to eat, go to the toilet, and dress themselves independently.
However, Kindred’s survey of 1,000 primary staff found they estimated over one in three (37%) children are starting reception without being school ready, a jump from 33% in 2024.
More significant drops in school readiness were reported by teachers in the North East, West Midlands, and North West.
Staff estimated they are spending 1.4 hours a day changing nappies or helping children who are not toilet trained, and 2.4 hours teaching time a day was lost due to pupils lacking basic skills.
Kindred Squared chief executive Felicity Gillespie said: “This is no longer just a classroom issue; it is a systemic crisis fuelled by stretched school resources, low expectations, the rising cost of living, and by parents who lack the right information and understanding early enough to truly support their children’s development.”
The government has set a target for 75% of children to be school ready by 2028.
In the latest Department for Education figures, 68.3% of children were judged to have a good level of development by the end of reception in 2024/25, a slight increase from the previous year.
However, in a survey of 1,000 parents of four and five-year olds, 88% said their child was ready to start school this year, and more than one in three (35%) said their child was more ready than most children.
Nearly all parents (94%) said they would like to see national guidance on making sure their child is school ready.
The government has been focusing investment in early years’ education, distributing £12m across 65 local areas to build Best Start family hubs, which will offer parenting support and youth services.
But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “More support before children start school in the early years is crucial - both for pupils and for families.
“As this report points out, it can be overwhelming for parents to know where to start and what to prioritise.
“Early identification and intervention to support children with SEND would also make a big difference - increasing levels of Send will be partly causing these rising numbers.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
The dumbing down of society has been methodical and well planned out, and we are now living in the world of the movie Idiocracy.
Generations in so-called first-world countries, with all of our conveniences and higher education, have collectively been made functionally illiterate; just smart enough to sustain themselves, operate the machines, drive the car, fill out the paperwork, but too dumb and distracted with vanity and fake wealth to ever fight back and question why they are doing what they are doing. Many of Gen Z have begun to snap out of the programming, but it is a day late and a dollar short; and many of them are very functionally illiterate too.
Gen Alpha and now Gen Beta, which began last year, were already on a collision course to get worse overall, but the draconian lockdowns and insane Covid measures implemented in 2020 will have forever marred so many of these children’s development for years to come, which will impact them well into their adulthood, unfortunately.
Now, coupled with pathetic excuses of parents and the over-abundance of technology and nanny statism, these poor children cannot even do the most basic of things. It’s sad.
Proverbs 19:13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
We already know that consistently using LLMs will make you dumber, as a number of studies have proven this; so these poor children won’t stand a chance…
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On one of his missionary journeys, the apostle Paul visited Athens, Greece, where he said he witnessed “the city wholly given to idolatry,” and who were “too superstitious” and worshipped a plurality of gods and deities, though the people acknowledged that there was still one God above all that was a mystery to them. When questioned by the philosophers …
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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What's up with those parents and teachers slacking off when they should be teaching their children in their homes before they go to school and the teachers teaching them and not passing them to the next grade till they know what they're supposed to know in their existing grade. All lazy people that don't care.
Idiocracy is a documentary!