Poverty is about not having enough money. So don’t blame schools for it
If the government is going to start using education data to hide child poverty, schools must find a way to highlight it
here is a joke in the film Brassed Off that goes like this: God’s assistant is creating people. He turns to God and says, “We’ve got all these bodies left, but we’re right out of brains, right out of hearts and right out of vocal cords”. And so God says “Sew ’em up anyway, make them talk out their arse, and call them the Tory party.”
It’s a harsh joke. But every now and then the Conservatives do something so egregiously stupid that the joke springs back into my head. The announcement that the government wants to change the child poverty definition has done it again.
Forget income as the main child poverty measure, says Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. Income is inconvenient. If we measure poverty by how much money you have compared with other people, then when we make those other people wealthier (like, pensioners – or our wealthy donors), then children are inconveniently poorer.
Hence, he has proposed that instead of focusing on money – the dictionary definition of poverty – a plethora of measures will tell us how poor children are. One will be school achievement. That’s right. For the first time in history, schools will be helping to save children from poverty – but also causing it.
The policy is stupid for two reasons. First, it makes no sense. Poverty is about money. It is one thing to fail at school, it is another to be hungry because you cannot afford food. Both are a problem but they are not the same thing.
Right now, thousands of families are being made homeless because of benefits capping. Each week, close to 500 homeless mothers and children are beingpushed out of London to some far-flung place. The trauma of moving home mixed with that of being yanked mid-year from school will affect these children’s education.
Elsewhere, one in four schools is washing children’s clothes, a recent survey by headteachers’ union NAHT found. NHS statistics show malnutrition is rising among 16- and 17-year-olds.
This indignation and trauma is not being caused by schools – and if Duncan Smith thinks he can divert eyes towards school achievement as a cover-up, he has Poverty is about not having enough money. So don’t blame schools for it | Education | The Guardian:
