Today [3rd April], Bridget Phillipson, the secretary of education, is delivering a speech at the Children’s Commissioner’s inaugural Festival of Children, where she will explain how the government will be putting “children first” through their Plan of Change. The plan aims at “breaking down barriers to opportunity by giving every child the best life chance from the start of their life through to adolescence.”
Phillipson added she is backing Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s intervention about the current development of misogynistic views in young boys around the country and the government’s efforts to tackle the problem.
The speech comes after Starmer pledged to show Netflix’s latest hit drama series, Adolescence, for free in secondary schools. The series has attracted millions of viewers in the UK and around the world, receiving 2.2 million watches in its first seven days on the streaming platform.
The Prime Minister addressed the show due to the discussions it was provoking on social media, stating that it was “hard to watch as a dad.” He then also met with producers Jack Thorne and actor Stephen Graham at Downing Street. According to AP News, Starmer said after the meeting that he backed Netflix’s proposal to show the series for free in secondary schools across the country “so that as many teens as possible can watch it.”
Phillipson stated: “It’s clear the behaviour of boys, their influences, and the young men they become, is a defining issue of our time. We need to raise a generation of boys with the strength to reject that hatred – curiosity, compassion, kindness, resilience, hope, respect.”
Over the recent years, knife crime and violence against women and girls have been on the rise in the UK. In many of these crimes, both the perpetrators and victims were young children. Many believe that the exposure of young boys to social media content has played a significant role. Influencers like Andrew Tate gained a young audience, which caused concern over children’s use of phones and social media.
Adolescence’s creator Jack Thorne told AP that this show surpassed his expectations when it came to fostering talks about this subject in schools. Thorne said: “We hope it’ll lead to teachers talking to the students, but what we really hope is it’ll lead to students talking amongst themselves.”
This past February, a study conducted by The University of York found that 38% of secondary school teachers experienced male pupils making misogynistic comments and reported that 26% of teachers witnessed male pupils discussing ‘manosphere’ influencers like Andrew Tate or other misogynistic trends like incels. In this study they mentioned a survey that suggested 80% of 16- and 17-year-old British boys have consumed content created by Tate.
Additionally, Phillipson wants to push for more men to consider careers in teaching saying: “But only one in four of the teachers in our schools are men. Just one in seven in nursery and primary. One in thirty-three in early years.”
“And since 2010 the number of teachers in our schools has increased by 28,000 – but just 533 of those are men. That’s extraordinary. “I want more male teachers – teaching, guiding, leading the boys in their classrooms.” Phillipson continued.
This week, the government has announced “300 new or expanded school-based nurseries, creating 6,000 new childcare places, and more widely is rolling out free breakfast clubs for children up and down the country” as part of Labour’s Plan for Change.
