Teachers dwindled as students grew taller and heavier

Teachers say that going to work is “like walking in the land of the giants” because their pupils are now so high and heavy.

The weight of 14-year-old male students rose from an average of 5-10 pounds in 1970 to 8.5, according to one NASUWT leader.

The average height has also risen over the past 50 years from 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 8 inches, Elaine Payling told delegates at the annual conference of the Teachers’ Union in Birmingham on Sunday.

As she tells the audience that she is a “big fan of statistics”, the history teacher claims that these figures were taken from the World Health Organization’s website.

However, a study from University College Cork puts the average height of a 14-year-old boy in 1970 at 5 feet 3 inches and in 2007 at 5 feet 6 inches.

“Small offices put physical development at risk”

Ms Paling told the audience that the “physical development” of the students was “at risk” by “being stuck in desks that are too small and made to sit on plastic chairs that are too narrow and with a short back. “.

“And where do they put those legs?” she added. “Usually on the trails, a perfect danger of travel. And why aren’t school desks and chairs bigger? Because they wouldn’t fit 30 students in the classroom.

Fergal McGukin, another teacher, told the conference that entering his A-level classes was like entering the “land of the giants.”

“As someone who is a standard 5 feet 8 inches, I really feel vertically challenged in these environments,” he added.

Vote to set limits on the maximum class size

Their comments came during a union vote to set maximum class size limits for Downing Street.

Members claim that students use classrooms the same size as their predecessors in the 1970s.

In 2021, a Labor analysis found that the number of high school students in classes of at least 31 increased from one in 10 in 2010 to almost one in seven.

He suggests that the number of primary school students in grades 31 or more has increased from one in nine in 2010 to one in eight students.

The analysis, based on data from the library of the Chamber of Municipalities, found that the number of high school students in grades 31 or more increased by more than 130,000 between 2016 and 2020, an increase of 43 percent.

The Ministry of Education said: “Schools and education staff have done more beyond the pandemic to ensure that every child receives the education they deserve.”