Copyright sluggerotoole
Helen Armstrong lives in the North West and is a psychotherapist, executive coach and trainer. I have made several written attempts to call out the problems in our current education system and how children at the tender age of 10 or 11 are being subjected to an unnecessary and unfair transfer test. As a result, we have ended up with a two-tier system that not only harms many children’s perception of their ability but also promotes social and academic segregation. All of this got me thinking about the wider issues impacting our society and how it views itself; one fellow parent told me once that they considered the transfer test as a good ‘ toughening up’ experience that will serve his kid in ‘ getting ahead’ and that it’s a ‘dog eat dog world’ so survival of the fittest is the only option. But surely there must be a better way than this unhealthly competitiveness where if you’re one of the dogs getting eaten, tough luck! This basic ‘rule’ for our society has always troubled me but also propelled me into finding out where in the world this thinking is less prevalent. My research took me to reading up and talking to others about Finland, still deemed as the happiest place in the world to live. I’d be surprised if there isn’t a correlation between this and the other well-known fact that this country still has one of the best education systems in the world and it surely must be the principles and values upon which this system is built that must play a part in creating such a healthy society: in Finland, the school system is based primarily on cooperation and NOT competition; there are no league tables nor inspection reports. A new comprehensive system emerged in the 80’s which essentially ditched the idea that only SOME pupils can achieve and set about creating an environment where ALL pupils are valued and can reach their full potential whatever that looks like. Teachers are highly valued and have exceptional support in place to teach mixed ability. Interestingly, following my investigations into this, I had a conversation with my social work student niece who had been doing a placement in a homeless shelter in Dundee- ‘There no homeless people in Finland Auntie Helen’ so she told me. “No surprise there” I thought to myself. My husband is just back from a business trip to Helsinki, singing the praises of the Finns from a business point of view: ‘They seem much less hierarchical and more collaborative than us’ he said – ‘it’s like they are all in it together and there’s no ‘big boss’ culture’. ‘No surprise again’ I thought. So where did we go wrong? Quite simply, our governments, past and present, have let a secret ideology creep into every crevice of our society including our education system called neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is a bad word in my vocabulary, and I’ll explain why – in a nutshell, it is a twentieth century concept based on the principle that competition is a defining characteristic of all human relations. We citizens are merely consumers, and our rights are boiled down to basic buying and selling, a process that rewards efficiency and punishes a lack of it. The ‘market’ is indeed our Holy Grail. The Damaging Effects on Mental Health The psychological impact of such a philosophy is, needless to say, less than positive: those who haven’t ‘succeeded’ according to this ideology, simply blame themselves for their failures even when they have more often than not, been rendered powerless to change their circumstances such as poor educational opportunities, poverty and all the ensuing mental health issues that go hand in hand. If we have a world governed solely by this kind of competition, those who fall behind are defined as the losers. In his book ‘What About me? The Struggle for Identity in a Market-based Society’ Paul Vergaeghe correlates epidemics of self-harm, eating disorders, depression, loneliness, anxiety and social phobia with this ideology. Monbiot, in his 2016 book, ‘How Did we Get into This Mess?’, states that although neoliberalism wasn’t originally conceived as a self-serving racket, it rapidly became one. Since the 80’s we’ve witnessed severe inequality in the distribution of both income and wealth. A weakening trade currency, tax reductions for the wealthy, rising rents, privatisation of just about everything and harmful deregulation all ring a bell? Another spin off to this ideology is that it demands qualifications and comparison. Everything is subject to an exhausting regime of assessment and monitoring. I’ve spoken to many teachers who love teaching and love the children but who feel their career is being smothered by paperwork and jumping through every hoop on the planet to prove they are fit for purpose. Peter Moss, in his paper ‘Education in England, an ailing system, historical amnesia and hope for the future’, describes a neoliberal world as having ‘created an increasingly unequal, insecure and unsupportive environment for children and families’ and goes on to say it has reduced education to nothing more than a technical process where children have merely become units of human capital and our schools have become nothing more than exam factories churning out our children on the production line to be fit for the work market alone. Everything is standardised and measured to the hilt in this ideology so that pupils and teachers alike conform, obey and suffer from a severe lack of agency. If you can’t jump through the hoops of performance and competition, you won’t get on that ‘production line’ and you will be tossed over the side; you will be one of the dogs getting eaten. Are the 63% of pupils on the Falls Road or 71% of pupils in parts of the Shankill who fail to attain 5 GCSEs or equivalent victims as well (UUEPC 2019)? Is the transfer test one of the cogwheels in the neoliberal infrastructure? I believe so. I also believe our young people are crying out for change: I currently have 2 teenage girls on my counselling books (14 and 15) and the prevailing theme that comes through is how much they hate the pressure of school and assessment. Their automatic pilot is to continually compare themselves to their friends and feel bad if they’re not doing as well. In fact, the 15-year-old is now participating in a ’reduced timetable’ which translates as dropping RE and PE as well as coming in at a later time on several days; her hope is this new regime now makes school more tolerable and workable so she can ‘get out’ as she puts it, once her GCSEs are over. I dread to think what Paul Givan’s new proposals of enforcing young people to remain in school until 18 is going to do to young people like her – locking the gates could well have to happen! In 2022, a study of more than 20,000 British, US and Canadian students identified a link between increased parental expectations and perfectionism in young people (please note that in psychological terms, perfectionism is NOT about pursuing perfection in and of itself; rather, it is about setting unrealistic expectations for yourself that can never be achieved, leading to self-doubt, never feeling good enough and a profound sense of being a failure). Dr. Thomas Curran, the lead researcher in this study says: ‘Parents are not to blame because they are reacting anxiously to a hyper-competitive world with ferocious academic pressures, runaway inequality and technological innovation like social media that propagates unrealistic ideals of how we should appear and perform. Parents are placing excessive expectations on their children because they think, correctly, that society demands it or their children will fall down the social ladder. It’s recalibrating their expectations. It’s about society, our economy, education system and supposed meritocracy – recognising that the pressures we are putting on young people and their families are unnecessarily overwhelming.’ If that doesn’t sum up the effects of neoliberalism on our education system and on our children, I don’t know what would. No wonder this age group is called Generation Anxiety and is getting it tight. So, if you’re from the older generations and could never quite fathom what’s going on with the younger folk, I hope this helps as a sound and accurate explanation. Broken Teeth As bizarre as this might sound, when I travel to other countries and see poor dentistry in those I meet, I recognise immediately the ravaging effects of neoliberalism. My most recent memories of this were in New York and previously on a visit to Bulgaria. In the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, I got haggled by a young black American trying to sell me an overpriced boat trip as well as a bedraggled looking young Bulgarian man in Bansko with sadness and bitterness in his eyes as he taxied me to my destination. I lost track of what they were saying as I (probably rudely) stared at their teeth, brown and broken with neglect, looking like a rugged mountain range. No braces or teeth whitening for these young men: Boulevard of Broken Dreams for one and a victim of the Bulgarian mafia for the other, both unable to escape the depressing cycle of poverty because the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. I’ve come across quite a few ‘haves’ in our society criticising the ‘have nots’: ‘if they would just get off their asses, stop feeling sorry for themselves and work a bit harder, they wouldn’t be in this situation’, is the general tone of their opinion. I don’t believe this kind of thinking is helpful; as Dr. Curran states in his research, this problem lies over and above the power of the individual. Maybe neoliberalism was originally designed with good intentions, but one thing is for sure, it has been exploited by those in power to weaken the very fabric of society and pitch us all up against each other: we have been hypnotised into believing it’s all our fault. In his book, ‘Lost Connections: Why we are Depressed and How to Find Hope’, Johann Hari argues that mental illness is often a rational response to a society that is not meeting people’s needs. Rather than linking it directly to individuals and therefore pathologising them (they are the problem and everyone else is normal), we need to focus on fixing the systemic problems that cause widespread distress: the effects of neoliberalism. For Hari, the solution lies within a social and community-based context- having a sense of purpose over and above just chasing the Yankee dollar, building community to reduce the two biggest killers on the planet, loneliness and isolation and getting back to nature are some of his well-researched propositions – a book well worth reading. Even our perception of self-esteem has been distorted by this ideology: in her TED talk, self-compassion expert Dr. Kirstin Neff, explains how our self-esteem in the West is dependent on being ‘special’ or ‘above average’. It’s reliant therefore on success and external validation which pushes us into constant unhealthy comparison with others, leading inevitably to stress, jealousy, bullying and a rapid rise in narcissism. What Needs to Change in Education I’m afraid I’m no expert pedagogue nor have I ever claimed to be but as a parent and therapist, what I do know is that something has to change.: if anyone seriously thinks that pushing our children to do better than others academically is the best thing for them and society as a whole, then a wakeup call is needed. If you do, then good luck in dealing with all the ensuing anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, and fear of failure: and trust me, these mental health issues are not just confined to those who are struggling academically but are just as prevalent in those who are successfully jumping through the hoops; the anxiety that one day they will miss a hoop is always in the background. Maybe the more holistic American model of the ‘student portrait’ that is emerging, is a possible answer, which captures a student’s skills, strengths and skills beyond traditional test scores. Is there a future for a digital dashboard for every child and young person capturing not just their academic skills but also digital records that highlight collaboration, communication skills, and real-life projects, presentations and community involvement? My purpose for this article is to help people see the bigger picture as well as think about what small shifts they can make in their lives to effect positive change and take more control, whether it’s telling your child that they are more than a set of results or that failures are the ‘signposts to success’ as beautifully articulated by CS. Lewis. There is no place for neoliberalism in the classroom. Pitching our children up against each other particularly from the age of 10/11 onwards with our current transfer test, is in my opinion, an act of inhumanity. Finland’s ideology seems to be based on the ‘ethics of everyone’ as I like to call it: nurturing, inclusive, equal. I see education as a key building block to getting us back to a society that reflects these values in a real way, not in a lip service way. If future governments want to use neoliberalism for economic growth, maybe that’s ok, but for the sake of future generations and their well-being, please have a think about this article. Monbiot. George, 2016, How Did We Get into This Mess, Verso Books. Hari, J., 2019, Lost Connections: Why we are Depressed and How to Find Hope, Bloomsbury Publishing, London. Therapy Today, July/August 24, Vol. 35, Issue 6: ‘The Truth about Generation Anxiety’ Verhaeghe, P., 2015, What About Me? The Struggle for Identity in a Market-based Society, Scribe UK. Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) & Belfast City Council, 2019. Sub-Regional Future Skills Needs: Belfast City Council Skills. [pdf] Ulster University. Available at: https://www.ulster.ac.uk/epc/pdf/2019/sub-regional-future-skills-needs/UUEPC-Belfast-City-Council-Skills_FINAL2.pdf [Accessed 8 October 2025].
