Kids are struggling to focus on activities for more than 10 minutes at a time in the wake of Covid, teachers have warned.
The attention span has shrunk so much that fewer primary school children can now sit still during meetings.
Eight in 10 teachers say student ‘inattentiveness’ has worsened since the pandemic, complaining about the noticeable increase in ‘unnecessary chatter, shouting and inappropriate laughter’.
The knock-on effects of the pandemic have been blamed, with teachers claiming children are lagging behind in social skills after spending months learning through screens.
Still, 85 percent of teachers think the “ever-swiping nature” of social media sites like TikTok has exacerbated the problem.
The survey, of more than 500 primary and first grade teachers in England, found deteriorating behaviour, increased daydreaming and complaints of boredom among pupils
The findings come from a survey of more than 500 educators and educators in England.
It follows a warning from MPs that the Covid generation has had their prospects affected by the pandemic and that it could take a decade for the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and others to return to pre-virus levels.
They today urged the government to tackle the ‘slow-motion catastrophe’ by ensuring schools provide tutoring to students struggling to catch up and reduce absenteeism.
Covid lockdowns saw schools across the UK shut for months except for the children of key workers.
Schools offered online learning instead, but some students couldn’t access it because they didn’t have the technology in-house.
Numerous studies have shown that student academic performance has suffered from the pandemic, public schools are the hardest hit, students are less motivated to study and many feel they have not been able to catch up on lost learning.
The survey, commissioned by online resource Kapow Primary and conducted between April and May, asked teachers about student behavior now, compared to pre-Covid.
More than four in five (84 percent) believe that children’s attention spans are ‘shorter than ever’.
And about two-thirds reported that children’s behavior in the classroom has worsened and that there has been an increase in classroom behavior inattention and daydreaming.
One in five teachers confessed that they spend an average of less than 10 minutes on a single activity to hold their children’s attention.
And more than half said students are now more likely to move around the room, more likely to complain of boredom and more likely to annoy and provoke others in the classroom.
Some 85 percent of teachers said the “ever-swiping nature of social media” has negatively impacted students’ attention spans.
While TikTok users should be over the age of 13, many pre-teens still have the app. Users can browse an endless stream of videos, which can be only seconds long.
A grades 5 and 6 teacher who worked at a primary school in Derbyshire, who declined to be named, said: ‘Classroom behavior is very different post-Covid.
“During the pandemic, we had to teach the kids through a screen, but now taking the screen away has had a huge impact.
Daydreaming is a big deal for us, as is helping children relearn some of their social skills. Little things like taking turns have been lost during Covid. We also have to introduce many more breaks in movement to prevent the children from dropping out.’
Another teacher, who works at a primary school in East London, said: ‘The behavior of many children in gatherings is highly symptomatic.
“Some have lost the ability to be part of a large audience and focus on a message shared with the whole school.”
Vicky Cottrill-Gray, director of educational content at Kapow Primary, said: ‘Children lost so much time in school during the pandemic. When they went back, they brought with them new behavioral challenges that teachers still face.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said: ‘Our approach to tackling school behavior is to support schools in developing a culture of behavior that works for them, their students and their communities.
‘We’ve updated our Behavior in Schools guidelines to provide clear advice on how to create and maintain high standards and our £10m Behavior Hubs program supports up to 700 schools to improve behaviour.’
While TikTok users should be over the age of 13, many pre-teens still have the app. Users can browse an endless stream of videos, which can be only seconds long
It comes as the Public Account’s Committee has warned it could take a decade for the gap between disadvantaged learners and others to return to pre-Covid levels.
A report published by the cross-party group of MPs states that 13 per cent of schools in England have not taken part in the flagship National Tutoring Program (NTP) in 2021/22.
Launched in November 2020, the NTP provided funding for primary and secondary schools to provide one-to-one tutoring and group lessons to help young people catch up after being banned from classrooms by lockdowns.
The DfE subsidized 75 per cent of the costs of the scheme for 2021/22 and 60 per cent in 2022/23.
The figure was set to fall to just 25 percent for 2023/24, but was raised to 50 percent due to budgetary pressure concerns.
The committee said: ‘There is a risk that without this central grant the National Tutor Program will wither on the vine.
“We’re not convinced the department fully appreciates the pressure on schools as they try to help students catch up.”
The committee called on the DfE to take more effective measures to increase participation in the NTP to ensure that ‘all learners receive the support they need’.
It also called on the DfE to take targeted action to reduce absenteeism among disadvantaged pupils and to publish a plan on how it will narrow the gap in education.
The report said: “Without the Department of Education taking faster and more effective remedial action, the legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic will long remain with us, damaging the prospects of a generation of children and entrenching the backlog.
“The disruption to education was one of the most serious consequences of the pandemic, leaving many students unable to learn.
“Disadvantaged students suffered the most, destroying a decade of progress in narrowing the gap between them and their peers.
“We are concerned that the department believes it could take another 10 years to bring the backlog gap back to pre-pandemic levels.”
Labor MP Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, urged the Government publishes plans to reduce the backlog gap and absenteeism.
She said: ‘The impact of a lost decade narrowing the gap in reaching underprivileged children is immeasurable.
“Without swift action, the slow-motion catastrophe of the pandemic for children’s education, and especially for underprivileged children, will continue to have far-reaching consequences for an entire generation.”
A DfE spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of the effect the pandemic has had on pupils’ education and so we have made £5bn available for education recovery.
Despite the impact of the pandemic, England came fourth out of 43 countries that tested children of the same age in the international PIRLS study of nine- and ten-year-olds’ reading ability.
“We remain committed to addressing the learning gap. That’s why the National Tutoring Program targets the most disadvantaged students and over three million courses have been launched to date, backed by an investment of over £1 billion.’