Teens are more unmotivated at school than ever before – here’s how to help them ...Middle East

What motivated you to learn when you were at school?

Perhaps it was the hope of a high exam mark so you could bask in the adulation of your friends. Maybe you wanted to impress that teacher you thought was the bees’ knees. Or was it to get on a particular university course or to get the job of which you’d always dreamed?

Whatever it was, many of today’s children appear not to share it. A survey by the Department for Education has found that over a quarter of secondary school pupils are not very or not at all motivated to learn – a significant rise from even a year ago.

It’s tempting to say that they should get a grip. Take primary school. Where children were once spurred on by a small bottle of mid-morning milk and the thought of being caned by the headteacher, today’s school kids are forever being showered by “value champion” certificates and the sweet treats. If you can’t be motivated by kindness, encouragement and Haribo, what hope is there?

Traditionalists might argue that it is precisely the lack of tough discipline that has undermined the hard work ethic of yesteryear. Now we have spared the rod, we’ve spoilt the children to the extent that they just can’t be arsed.

I’m not convinced. Corporal punishment hasn’t been used in British schools for a quarter of a century. And anyway, there are plenty of children who still tremble at the prospect of merely being shouted at by their teacher.

More compelling is the idea that knowledge is simply less of a premium than it once was. A recent report by Oxford University Press found 80 per cent of 13 to 18-year-olds regularly used artificial intelligence to help with their schoolwork. A quarter felt new technology made it too easy to find answers without having to do the work themselves.

In an age when Google, Alexa and ChatGPT will tell you all you need to know, what is the point in actually learning anything? Other, that is, than how to use the technology.

What’s more, children’s key role models are most likely to be YouTube pranksters, influencers and sports stars. They might know their way around a football pitch and TikTok – but those are not skills at the top of most schools’ agenda.

But there is something else here which is more concerning still. While, by some metrics, children in the UK have rarely had it so good, plenty of studies suggest that levels of well-being among young people have been declining over the last 10 to 15 years.

Social media is regularly cited as a primary cause, creating a distorted, troubling reality as well as being an online playground for the most invidious sort of bullying. Yet the sources of dissatisfaction are surely much wider too.

Economic malaise, austerity, Brexit, Covid, global conflict and climate change: these are the events and themes that have dominated life in this country (and beyond) for much of the last two decades. Each in its own way has diminished opportunity and curtailed hope.

Previous generations were not immune to uncertainty, but there is a particularly unnerving set of circumstances facing children and young people now. When they look at their future, they see one featuring debt, an insecure jobs market, high costs of living and an ever-greater struggle to get on the housing ladder. And that’s not even to mention World War III and climate meltdown.

With all that in mind, it would be reasonable to wonder whether there is much to be gained by learning the pluperfect tense in French or getting your head around Twelfth Night.

However, if it’s partly true that kids just need to get a grip, so do their parents. Being open with children about the challenges they face – and that the planet faces – is all well and good. Indeed, much better to be open and honest than to leave kids to get a warped view from social media. Yet when reality is hard for adults too, it can be all too easy to overdo the handwringing: to mutter about the rising cost of the weekly shop, or to bemoan the hopeless state of the world.

It’s important then to remind ourselves that there are still positives – and that where there are problems, there can still be solutions. And in convincing our children of this, a nod to history can be useful.

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After all, past generations feared diseases to which there are now cures; witnessed terrible conflicts that came to an end; and saw technology overcome daily inconveniences (imagine life without a toaster, eh?). At an individual level, people dragged themselves out of poverty, progressed in careers they never thought possible or became renowned in their field of expertise.

For the most part, these solutions or advances happened because people worked hard, learned things and developed their knowledge – usually starting in school. However bleak things may feel to many today, there is no reason to assume that this principle is any less true. At least some of the challenges we see now will certainly be overcome by the next generation, if they put their able minds to it – even if we cannot foresee those solutions now. You might also like to explain to your kids that there remains a clear link between success at school and future earnings.

Pupils may find it hard to motivate themselves to learn. But while it may be a hard sell in the current gloom, that is all the more reason for parents to do all they can to persuade their children that hard work at school can still pay off in the long run.

Hence then, the article about teens are more unmotivated at school than ever before here s how to help them was published today ( Thursday 04/12/2025 - 04:45 PM ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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