TikTok’s ‘left Generation Covid with 10-minute attention spans and unable to sit through

Kids are struggling to focus on activities for more than 10 minutes at a time in the wake of Covid, teachers have warned.

Attention spans have shrunk so much that fewer primary school children are now able to sit still during assemblies.

Eight in ten teachers say that ‘pupil inattention’ has worsened since the pandemic, complaining about the noticeable rise in ‘needless chatter, shouting and laughing inappropriately’.

Knock-on effects of the pandemic have been blamed, with teachers claiming kids are behind on social skills after spending months learning through screens.

Yet 85 per cent of teachers think the ‘ever-swiping nature’ of social media sites like TikTok have exacerbated the issue.

The findings come from a survey of more than 500 primary and early year teachers in England. 

It follows a warning from MPs that the Covid generation have seen their prospects damaged by the pandemic and that it may take a decade for the performance gap between disadvantaged pupils and others to return to pre-virus levels.

They have today urged the Government to tackle the ‘slow-motion catastrophe’ by ensuring schools are tutoring pupils struggling to catch up and reducing absence rates.

Covid lockdowns saw schools across the UK shut their doors for months at a time, except to the children of key workers.

Schools instead offered online learning but some pupils were unable to access it as they did not have the technology at home. 

Swathes of studies have shown that students’ academic performance suffered as a result of the pandemic, that those in state schools are worst affected, that students are less motivated to study and many feel like they’ve not been able to catch up with lost learning. 

The survey, commissioned by online subject resource Kapow Primary and carried out between April and May, asked teachers about pupils’ behaviour now, compared to pre-Covid.

More than four in five (84 per cent) believe the attention span of children is ‘shorter than ever’.

And around two-thirds reported that children’s classroom behaviour has worsened and that there has been an increase in inattention and daydreaming.

One in five teachers confessed that they spend less than 10 minutes on average on any single activity to maintain their children’s attention.

And more than half said pupils are now more likely to move around the room, are quicker to complain about being bored and are more likely to annoy and provoke others in the classroom.

Some 85 per cent of teachers said that the ‘ever-swiping nature of social media’ has negatively affected pupils’ attention span.

While TikTok users are supposed to be aged over 13, many pre-teens still have the app. Users can flick through an endless stream of videos, which can be just seconds long.

One Year 5 and 6 teacher working at a Derbyshire primary school, who asked not to be named, said: ‘Behaviour in class is very different post-Covid. 

‘We had to teach the children through a screen during the pandemic, but taking the screen away now has had a massive impact.

‘Daydreaming is a big issue for us, as is helping children re-learn some of their social skills. Little things like turn-taking got lost during Covid. We also have to do a lot more movement breaks to avoid the children from tuning out.’

Another teacher, working at an east London primary school, said: ‘The conduct of many children in assemblies has been particularly symptomatic. 

‘Some have lost the ability to sit as part of a large audience and focus on a message being shared with the whole school.’

Vicky Cottrill-Gray, education content director at Kapow Primary, said: ‘Children lost so much in-school time during the pandemic. When they went back, they brought new behavioural challenges with them that teachers are still having to deal with.’

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: ‘Our approach to tackling behaviour in schools has been to support schools to develop a behaviour culture that works for them, their pupils, and their communities.

‘We have updated our Behaviour in Schools guidance to provide clear advice on how to create and maintain high standards and our £10 million Behaviour Hubs programme is supporting up to 700 schools to improve behaviour.’

It comes as the Public Account’s Committee has warned that it could take a decade for the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils 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 did not take up its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP) in 2021/22.

The NTP, launched in November 2020, offered funding to primary and secondary schools to provide one-to-one tutoring and group lessons to help youngsters catch-up after lockdowns saw them banished them from classrooms.

The DfE subsidised 75 per cent of the costs of the scheme for 2021/22 and 60 per cent in 2022/23.

The figure was set to plummet to just 25 per cent for 2023/24, but was upped to 50 per cent following concerns about budget pressures.

The committee said: ‘There is a risk that without this central subsidy, the National Tutoring Programme will wither on the vine.

‘We are not convinced that the department fully appreciates the pressures schools are under as they seek to help pupils catch up.’

The committee called on the DfE to take more effective action to increase participation in the NTP to ensure ‘all pupils get the support they need’.

It also called on the DfE to take targeted action to reduce absence rates among disadvantaged pupils and to publish a plan on how it will reduce the disadvantage gap.

The report said: ‘Without the Department for Education taking faster and more effective recovery action, the legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic will be with us for a long time, damaging the prospects of a generation of children and entrenching disadvantage.

‘The disruption to schooling was one of the most serious consequences of the pandemic, leading to lost learning for many pupils.

‘Disadvantaged pupils suffered most, wiping out a decade of progress in reducing the gap in attainment between them and their peers.

‘We are alarmed that the department believes it could take a decade more to return the disadvantage gap to pre-pandemic levels.’

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, urged the Government to publish plans to reduce the disadvantage gap and absence rates.

She said: ‘The consequences of a lost decade in progress narrowing the gap in attainment for disadvantaged children are immeasurable.

‘Without swift action, the slow-motion catastrophe of the pandemic for children’s education, and in particular for disadvantaged children, will continue to have far-reaching consequences for an entire generation.’

A DfE spokesperson said: ‘We are conscious of the effect the pandemic has had on pupils’ education which is why we have made £5billion available for education recovery.

‘Despite the effect of the pandemic, England came fourth out of 43 countries that tested children of the same age in the PIRLS international survey of the reading ability of nine and 10-year-olds.

‘We remain committed to addressing the attainment gap which is why the National Tutoring Programme is targeted at the most disadvantaged students and has had over three million course starts to date, backed by more than £1billion investment.’