The decline in pupils’ emotional engagement with school
Think tank: CEPEO
Author(s): John Jerrim; Neil Kaye
April 3, 2025
This report from UK think tank CEPEO presents new comparative evidence on the decline in pupils’ emotional engagement with school.
Research has indicated how, in England, pupils’ emotional engagement at school drops rapidly in the first stages of secondary education (Key Stage 3). But to what extent is a similar pattern observed in other countries, and is the fall steeper in England than elsewhere?
This paper presents new comparative evidence on this issue, drawing on multiple waves of data from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Our results show that between the end of primary and mid-secondary school, pupils’ level of emotional engagement falls in almost every country with data available. The magnitude of this fall is, however, more pronounced in England than elsewhere. In several areas the drop is greater for girls than boys, though with little difference according to immigrant status.
We also illustrate how secondary school pupils’ emotional engagement with school has fallen significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
