UK Parents Feel Ignored by Government on Education: According to new research published by PTA UK, fewer than a fifth (18%) of parents think that parents in England listen to them about their children’s education – and only a third of the 1000 parents polled said that they understood the government’s changes to education.

UK Parents Feel Ignored by Government on Education

PTA UK executive director, Emma Williams, commented that the two most important points of influence on a child’s education were the school and their parents, however, the parent voice has ‘been largely absent from the national education debate’ up until this point.

In a separate online survey of more than 1300 members of parent teacher associations who were active found that that they felt almost unanimously (97%) that they should be consulted about major changes to their child’s school and schooling, with a similar number of respondents (96%) saying that being consulted would make them feel involved and included in their child’s education.

The DfE has stated that the government welcomed parents views on education and schooling issues – adding that they were currently running public consultations on policies including changes to GCSEs and the content of A-levels.

However, even among this group of more active PTA members, only 15% stated that they understood the role of regional schools commissioners.