Caroline Barnes’ eldest son struggled with the transition to secondary school at age 11. Once there, he was repeatedly pulled out of lessons for distracting others with his fidgeting, fiddling with pens, or chatting.
Separated from his peers in another classroom, he would generally watch YouTube videos, making learning harder, his difficulties compounded by dyslexia. He became anxious about attending school. “It was hard to get him out of the door,” says Barnes. “He’d go into almost comical slow behaviour. Every day was becoming a huge fight or upset. You can’t manage your life.” His attendance became increasingly patchy.
His experience is part of a broader international trend of school absence that accelerated sharply during Covid-19 and has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels. It has been underpinned by digital distractions and AI raising existential questions about education and work, with widespread implications for children, their families, schools and society more broadly.