In this sharply argued column, Guardian commentator Simon Jenkins places the blame for England’s school attendance crisis squarely on the nature of secondary schooling itself. While politicians have focused on parental attitudes and poverty, Jenkins argues that the more fundamental problem is that children find school “hostile, disturbing and largely pointless.” He documents the collapse of technical, creative and arts subjects — down 50–80% over 13 years — and the entrenchment of rote learning and high-stakes testing that he describes as unchanged since Dickens’ Hard Times. The piece provides pointed media-facing evidence that the crisis of disengagement is not just about students or families, but about what schools are being asked to do and be.