Proportion of English pupils saying they dislike school doubles in eight years
On a downward trend: proportion of pupils saying they like school, as measured by TIMSS. Image: iStock/Getty Images
England sadly now has third-highest figure of any nation within the TIMSS study saying they do not like school
The proportion of pupils in England who say they dislike school has doubled in eight years, with the country now having among the world’s least satisfied teenagers, little-noticed data from one of the largest international testing studies shows.
Nearly half of England’s 14-year-olds (48 per cent) said they disagreed with the statement “I like being in school,” compared to figures of 31 per cent in 2019 and 24 per cent in 2015, data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) found.
At primary level, separate data for England’s 10-year-olds show the proportion saying they did not like it at school rising from 14 per cent in 2015 to 28 per cent in 2023, although the country is not among the world’s worst performers on this measure at this age.
The new data, based on survey answers from 650,000 children globally including 8,000 in England, seem to add to questions about what might be driving pupil dissatisfaction here, with another major international testing survey also seeming to point in the same direction.
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By Warwick Mansell for EDUCATION UNCOVERED
Published: 29 April 2025
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