NASUWT Leader Warns of Ticking Time Bomb Over Male Pupil Misogyny

Nearly a quarter of female teachers in the UK reported being subjected to misogyny from pupils in the past year, according to a new survey by the NASUWT teaching union, as the rate of such incidents rose for the fourth consecutive year. The findings, released at the union's annual conference in Liverpool, prompted general secretary Matt Wrack to warn that schools are sitting on a "ticking time bomb."

The survey of more than 5,000 teachers found that 23.4% of female respondents said they had experienced sexist, racist or homophobic language from a pupil in the past year, up from 22.2% the year before and from 17.4% in 2023. Reported incidents ranged from male pupils refusing to follow instructions from female teachers on the grounds of their sex, to boys barking at staff, blocking classroom doorways and, in at least one case, a student generating AI-fabricated naked images of a teacher.

"If female teachers are reporting that they cannot contain gender-based aggression in their classrooms, and that is exactly what they are telling NASUWT, then we have a ticking time bomb on our hands," Wrack said. "These pupils are the same boys and young men who will go on to be husbands, fathers, and colleagues in the workplace."

Wrack, who took over as general secretary from Dr Patrick Roach, said the union is calling for mandatory teacher training to help staff identify, challenge and safely de-escalate behaviour rooted in online radicalisation and sexism. "We have a masculinity crisis brewing in our schools," he said, adding that teachers need urgent support in dealing with what he described as a new frontier of behaviour management.

The percentage of female teachers reporting misogyny from pupils has risen for the fourth year in a row. The NASUWT's survey found that 59% of teachers believe that social media has negatively impacted pupil behaviour. Accounts submitted by teachers described male pupils citing figures such as Andrew Tate to justify sexist attitudes, with one respondent noting that boys in a secondary English class wrote persuasive essays praising Tate's view that women are a man's property.

Wrack also turned his fire on technology companies, arguing that platforms must bear greater responsibility for the content they serve to young people. "Our young people are being exploited to feed tech billionaires' endless appetites for profit and power, and our education system is under attack as a result," he said.

The warnings arrived amid a broader national debate about boys and online culture, sharpened by the Netflix drama Adolescence, which examines incel ideology through the story of a 13-year-old accused of murdering a classmate. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who welcomed a move by Netflix to make the series available to screen for free in secondary schools, has nonetheless acknowledged there is no simple solution to pulling boys out of what he called a "whirlpool" of misogyny.

A Department for Education spokesperson said misogynistic views "are not innate, they are learned," and pointed to updated Relationships, Sex and Health Education guidance and the Educate Against Hate programme as tools for teachers to recognise and intervene on incel ideologies. The NASUWT, which represents more than 250,000 members across the UK, has called for a multi-agency response that goes beyond classroom instruction, including improved social media literacy programmes and coordinated action against far-right recruitment targeting children online. Without that systemic investment, Wrack's time bomb keeps ticking.