over this next half hour special we will take a closer look at the mounting challenges facing students and teachers as they head back. and france's education minister announced the country will ban schoolchildren from wearing the abaya — a loose—fitting, full—length robe worn by some muslim women, in state—run schools when classes begin this month. my colleague sumi somaskanda spoke with us education secretary miguel cardona to discuss his thoughts on the challenges facing students and teachers heading back to school. secretary, thank you very much forjoining us again on bbc news. i want to start with affirmative action because the supreme court's ruling effectively ended race—conscious admissions in colleges and universities and if you look at the state of california, the uc system hasn't actually been able to meet its racial diversity goals, despite having ended race—based admissions more than two decades ago. so how do you make sure that schools and universities are diverse at the same time as adhering to the law? yeah, i'm glad you brought up california because we can see that if what happened in california happens across the country, we are taking steps backward. i believe the supreme court got it wrong. we're committed to working with leaders from all over the country to make sure that we're increasing the diversity on our campuses to reflect the beautiful diversity of this country. we know we have talent there and unfortunately, our admissions data does not reflect the diversity we have in our country, so we're committed to working with our presidents, our chancellors, our boards to find ways to make sure all students feel accepted, welcome at our higher education campuses, and that also means getting specific with or getting really strategic around k—12 schools and higher education institutions partnerships. you know, we need to recruit better, we need to make sure we're taking into account the adversity that students have experienced. we can do it. obviously, we have to be lawful. they took away a tool to get diversity on campus but they didn't take away our resolve. the north—western evaluation association put out a report about students who are continuing to struggle post—pandemic and they said, "in nearly all grades, achievement gains during 2022—23 fell short of pre—pandemic trends, which stalled progress towards pandemic recovery" and it said the average student needs about four additional months in reading and 4.5 months in math to catch up. what is the department doing to help close that gap? right, you know, it's — as a parent and as an educator, that is my priority. and imagine how far back our students would be across the country if we didn't have the american rescue plan dollars to help with after—school programming, summer school programming, tutoring, making sure we have highly qualified teachers, but it goes to show the impact of the pandemic and how students went back. i was in a school earlier today and i saw these efforts like tutoring, good literacy instruction, mental health support for students taking place. at the department of education, we have a strategy called raise the bar, where literacy and numeracy recovery is critical, mental health supports are critical, providing pathways to students are critical, making sure we have highly qualified teachers in every classroom — that's part of our strategy. we have a game plan for this and we're bringing dollars to bearfor this. the president's budget is very clear that he's working to make sure that schools where students are underperforming get the supports that they need to not only recover from the pandemic but thrive even higher than ever before. if we talk about the content in schools, there's been a lot of controversy over how black history is taught in the state of florida, as you know, and there's a new standard that requires educators to teach students there that slaves developed skills that they could benefit from. and you have said you don't want politicians interfering in education like this, so what is the department doing when it comes to these types of standards? right, well, first of all, you know, my message to the students and educators and parents in florida is we see what's happening and we support you. we recognise the attack that public school is under in places like florida and we recognise that when politics enters a classroom, students lose. it's important that we have our local board, parents and educators make decisions, not politicians that want to lift their national profile. you know, the latest example of where they were trying to find some benefit to slavery is really, really low but it's a pattern of attacks on black curriculum, on diversity in general. you know, we have the office for civil rights that investigate any cases of hostile learning environments for students and we're always available to receive investigation requests if that's felt. have you received those requests from the state of florida? we have received requests from different states, some in florida — i couldn't tell you if it was regarding the most recent one, but i will tell you you've heard from parents, from educators and students in florida — i've been on the ground in florida — telling me that they're disgusted with what's happening at the state level, that they want to just get back to learning and making sure that all students feel welcome in a school. this goes back to, you know, making students who are lgbtq feel unwelcome in schools a couple of years ago. there's a direct attempt to disrupt public education, in my opinion, so they can sell their voucher programmes over there but that's not going to won't work. school safety is also very much in the mind of parents as they kids go back to school, as you know, and we just witnessed two shootings about three days apart, several hundred miles apart from each other, were universities were involved in florida and north carolina. can you tell parents that their kids heading back to schools, to campuses, are safe? look, as a father, the most important thing to be is the safety of my family and as i drop children off, whether it's high school or college, their physical safety and their emotional well—being are paramount to me. and i want that for all kids across the country. we are doing everything we can with the bipartisan safer communities act to provide dollars. we are communicating the importance of safety, we are providing technical assistance to districts and states, but we need congress to act with gun safety legislation that removes assault weapons from the hands of people that shouldn't have them. we need our legislators to be more worried about the safety of children than the safety of ar—iss in our communities and, you know, the president is pushing — and i know many of our colleagues on the hill are pushing — but we have some far—right republicans would rather protect guns than children. secretary, one more question about student loan forgiveness — i know this is something you've been working closely with the president on. his original plan was blocked by the supreme court and now, he'as turned to a different forgiveness plan under the higher education act. that which could take months or even years to implement, so do you think the president can honour this campaign promise to forgive student loan debt? the president has been honouring it. we've provided over $117 billion in debt relief from day one. that's more than any other administration combined. without question, with public service loan forgiveness, borrower defence, we've really gone after those colleges that are taking advantage of students. we've provided debt forgiveness to public servants and we have a more robust plan through the negotiated rule—making progress to provide more targeted debt relief. but to answer the question about are we committed to it? look at what we've done from day one — over 117 billion, over 600,000 public servants has gone debt relief. and we're going to continue fighting. we know that this is important. we know that accountability in higher education is important. we know that opening doors to higher education for many more americans are something that we're committed to, not only for them but for the strength of our country and the president's not only talked about it but shown the commitment through the action and we're committed to doing that moving forward. and what is your message to students as they head back to school? give it your best. commit to learning as much about yourself as you are about learning from others and building a sense of community in your schools. we believe in you. we're excited for this upcoming school year and we're going to fight hard to make sure you have a great education in k—12 and in higher education as well. secretary, thank you so much forjoining us. thank you very much. ok, take care. with a return to the classroom there are rising concerns about children's mental health. according to a new harris poll, 71% of american parents say their child experienced challenges last school year. these include safety concerns, academic problems, bullying, ongoing challenges related to the pandemic and overall mental health difficulties. meanwhile, a paper published in thejournal of nature human behaviour found that students lost out on about 35% of a normal school year's worth of learning during the pandemic when many schools stopped in—person learning. earlier, i spoke with rebecka peterson, the 2023 us national teacher of the year. she's been a maths teacher for 11 years at union high school in tulsa, oklahoma. rebecka peterson, you've been a teacher now for well over a decade but you've described your first year of teaching as quite a difficult one. why was that? yeah, so, i started teaching at the college level and then, after three years of teaching at the college level, i switched to the high school level and it was that — that year of switching that was really a challenge for me, right? i went from this classroom where students were paying to hear what i had to say to this classroom where students were more or less forced what i had to say, and that was a shock to my system and, to be honest, i wasn't sure that was going to make it. i thought, you know, "this is hard" but eventually, i found my rhythm and i found that i absolutely loved teaching high school students and they have become the best pieces of me. you're an immigrant of swedish—iranian descent. you went to school in many countries around the world before you arrived in america. do you find that us classrooms are welcoming to children of diverse backgrounds? you know, i can speak to my own district, which actually, is an incredibly diverse and culturally rich district. we have 62 languages represented. and so, for me to teach union public schools here in tulsa, oklahoma has been just so full circle because so many of my students are also immigrants or first—generation americans and so, while we did move a lot growing up — i lived in four countries by the time i was 16 and that sometimes that was sort of an untethering experience but i say you know what? that sort of untethering as a child now really tethers me to my students and so, it is such a joy to teach in this beautifully diverse and culturally rich district where i'm very proud of how welcoming we are to all students, and that's the beautiful thing about public education, right? it's for all of us. so, how does your own personal experience, then, inform your approach to children? perhaps maybe to children who are struggling and finding things a little difficult? yeah, i think for me, it's so important to capture the heart before we try to capture the mind, right? so, for me, it comes down to learning my students�* stories and so, at the beginning of each school year, i invite each of my students to just come tell me their story, you know? because we know kids spell love t—i—m—e, right? and so, for me to open up the space and again, to first learn about them as human beings before — before students, it's been so transformative. and when we learn our students�* stories, grace permeates. and i find that when we have these connections, the connections, they don't make excuses but connection makes a lot of room and so, that's how i really try to ensure that there is a seat for each and every kid. so, is it surprising to you, then, looking at the harris poll that last year, seven out of ten parents said their children had faced challenges in the classroom? it's not surprising to me. you know, there's a really interesting study out of stanford where they scanned i think 163 adolescent brains and they found the brains scanned post—pandemic the same way that pre—pandemic adolescent brains only scanned had they undergone some sort of abuse, neglect or trauma and so, you know, it's so clear, like, the science is telling us our kids have changed, you know, and i think we've all changed after the pandemic. and it's really, really sobering news but the good news is the science is really clear and connection is how we heal. so, what i'm optimistic about is our teachers and the connections that they're able to provide for our students and for our communities because again, we know that's how we heal. talking about teachers there and those connections, there is a teacher shortage at the moment — about 50,000 vacancies or so. you've described it yourself, actually, as a crisis. what should the us be doing to attract more teachers into the profession? yeah, that's the million—dollar question! i think certainly, teachers are being poached by higher paying industries, right? our high school students are looking at these salaries and comparing salaries and saying, you know, i'm not going to be able to cut it as a teacher. and so, certainly, we need to make sure we are funding education. i think it's also a really politically charged time for education in the united states right now. i hear teachers all the time saying — myself and my colleagues — we just want to teach, right? we don't want to be part of a political narrative. we came into teaching because we love kids and because we want to improve outcomes for kids and so, to sort of add a political rhetoric on top of all of the challenges we already face is something that is, quite frankly, not sustainable for teachers and for the students we serve. with that political pressure, there is obviously resource pressure as well. i teachers just feeling themselves under pressure? there is a lot of pressure and there is so many hats we whereas teachers, oftentimes we are the first responder ifa kid has... described his knee on the playground or oftentimes we are the ones going to counsellors or to nurses and sometimes we are little police officers, trying to keep the peace. there are so many hats we wear as teachers, but we didn't ask to be part of a political narrative. just finally then, it is obviously the start of a new school term in the us and many other parts of the world as well, what is your message to teachers at this time? yeah, my message is, you are enough, you are not exactly as you are. this time of year it is so easy to play the comparison game, and there are so many new things we are trying to wrap our heads around, we are spinning so many plates. roosevelt said it best, comparison is the thief ofjoy. to teachers i am just going to say you are enough exactly as you are, you are exactly what our students need, and just focus on being the kind of teacher you needed as a student, and i know that you are going to soar and your kids are going to soar this year. thank you for that, rebecka peterson, us national teacher of the year, thanks forjoining us. thanks so much. book bans are on the rise in the us, with attempts to pull titles off the shelves of public schools hitting a 21—year high in 2022, according to a report by the american library association. a pen america's report lists over 1,400 instances of individual book bans that affected 874 unique titles from july to december 2022. bans are the most prevalent in florida, missouri, utah, south carolina, and texas — which tops the list with over a38 book bans. and they include works by acclaimed authors like the bluest eye by toni morrison, the handmaid's tale by marget atwood, and a court of mist and fury by sarah] maas. these titles depict stories that touch on themes of violence, sexual abuse, loss and/or lgbtq+ topics, providing new hurdlers for educators in their classrooms. earlier, i wasjoined by tamara gilkes borr, us policy correspondent for the economist, she was a new york city public school teacher for five years, and mary wood, an english teacher at chapin high school in south carolina. i began by asking mary about her first—hand experience in education today. you've been at the coalface of interference of what you can teach in the classroom. you were told to stop using ta—nehisi coates�* book on growing up black in america as part of your advanced english class, what was the issue with that text? the issue seems to be related to a couple of videos that i provided as background information regarding systemic racism, and that was to help students be prepared to study the book, and then the book was "paused", or pulled rather. had itjust been the videos then i imagine the book would have been fine, but i think it had to do with being black in america. how do you work as a teacher if you're not fully in control of your classroom materials? that must provide an extra layer of challenge. well, you know, teachers work really hard throughout a school year to develop relationships and form connections with their students and create a safe environment. the trust has to be that students believe that you have their best interests at heart. to pause that, or to stop that, to interfere with the integrity of the classroom definitely demeans teacher authority — or not even authority, but teacher relevance and knowledge of what we do. tamara, mary is echoing what we heard from rebecka peterson a moment ago talking about unnecessary political pressure in the classroom — is that something new in the us education system? no, we have seen political interference ever since school became compulsory in 1918. today it is critical race theory but in the 1920s it was about communism. in the 1970s it was about multicultural texts, almost every decade since school became compulsory you have seen these political battles. this week we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the march in washington, dr martin luther king's "i have a dream" speech, we heard how his dream is still not here in the us — you mentioned critical race theory. that's one issue, but there are also racial disparities in terms of access to education, resources — where is the us at at the moment? i think clearly there is huge racial disparities in the us in many cases in terms of exams and access as you mentioned. but i think it is important to celebrate the wins as well. we saw before the pandemic racial gaps were closing, exam scores were getting better, so i think it is important to celebrate those wins we have seen while also acknowledging how much work we have to do. and how much work is there to do? there is quite a bit of work to do in some cases, of course we are looking at huge disparities between black and hispanic students and white students when it comes to exams, like i mentioned before, high school graduation as well as college going rates as well. mary, is that your experience in the classroom? um, yes. you know, i work primarily with white students — there are mostly white children at my school, we are like 85% white, and most of my honours and ap classes, there are very few or a markedly lower amount of children of colour, so i definitely see those disparities, yes. there are disparities as well, aren't there, in terms of economic income, if you like, household income and the split between public schools in the us and private schools. yes — i would say that my school is in a wealthier area, and so a lot of the children have access to, you know, extra test prep, tutoring, their lives aren't encumbered — not all of them, but a large portion of them are not encumbered by after—school employment or having to support themselves. theirfocus can be primarily on development of education and development of extracurricular activities. that in and of itself is a privilege. that is a privilege, as mary is describing, tamara, but there are wide differences in the literacy levels american students have on graduation, isn't there? absolutely, we are seeing unacceptable disparities in terms of what students can do at graduation, and of course we have to keep moving forward to improve that. but again, we are seeing the gap closing. so i think that is really positive for public schools in america. and one thing that feeds into your literacy level or anything else upon graduation is of course how often you have attended school. absolutely. we are seeing a rise in chronic absenteeism, which i believe is if you are missing for 10% or more of the school year? yes — so a study out of stanford university found that over one in four student actually chronically absent which as you mentioned is missing 10% of school, which is 18 days of school or almost a month of school. so obviously that is a big concern. and as you mentioned before with disparities, we are seeing that while all students in general are facing chronic absenteeism, it is highest in disadvantaged groups like students of colour or poor students or homeless students. and do we know why that is? obviously if you are homeless you have a lot of challenges there — but in the round, are there specific factors that children are missing school for? there are probably three main reasons, but i would say for everyone, the pandemic change the way we thought about illness — so we started to see parents keeping kids home for the sniffles, when before they may not have done so. also mental health is more of a concern, and people are starting to realise that "maybe my child needs a day off from school today". but also some students are really interested in being home, just like... like workers who want to work from home. so we are seeing a shift in — the pandemic really shook things up and we are seeing a shift in what schooling is today. mary, have you seen that in your school, have you seen a change in how often students attend? we have a sharp decline in student attendance in classes, for a number of reasons. but speaking to mental health, that is seemingly a primary cause of some absenteeism. of course there is the, you know, the idea that some students have extraneous responsibilities that interfere with their ability to attend, however mental health is a concern that i address regularly, and i see an increase in students�* 50a plans or accommodations that address generalised anxiety disorder, depression and other kinds of mental concerns, yeah. 0k. ok. i think we would have a whole other programme discussing just that but we will have to leave it there for now. tamara gilkes borr and mary wood, thank you both for joining us. i�*m caitriona perry. i�*ll be back at the top of the hour with the latest headlines. stay with us here on bbc news. take care. hello there. the first week of september is looking a lot more summery than what we had throughout most ofjuly and indeed august. this weekend, high pressure is building in. it will turn drier and sunnier and warmer across the board. however, there will be a fly in the ointment that comes with this area of low pressure in its weather from which will push close to the north—west of scotland at times, certainly on sunday. but high pressure is building in — it�*s killing off the showers, the clouds. early on saturday we should see any rain fizzling out, but there will be a legacy of clouds and mist and fog, particularly across central southern england, wales, northern ireland. here it�*s going to be mild, but again, the north—east corner of scotland will be quite chilly with temperatures in low single digits. so we start off, plenty of sunshine in the north. further south, mist and fog through the morning which will tend to lift and burn. into the afternoon, could see the odd isolated shower developing, but most places will stay dry and it�*ll feel a lot warmer for most — low to mid 20s across the board. as we head through saturday night again we�*ll see the mist and fog develop pretty much anywhere but especially across parts of england and wales. gradually, this weather front will start to push into the north—west of scotland to bring stronger winds, outbreaks of rain. a much milder night to come across north—east scotland, 13 degrees for aberdeen. and elsewhere, temperatures will be in double figures. sunday high pressure still with us, but this weather front will be influencing the weather across north—west scotland. so for the highlands and islands, it�*ll be quite cloudy, breezy with outbreaks of rain here. but southern and eastern scotland, northern ireland, england and wales, once any early mist and fog clears away, then it�*ll be a lovely, sunny, dry day. light winds for most quite gusty, though, for the north—west of scotland. temperature wise, for the highlands and islands, 15 to 17 degrees. but the rest of scotland, northern ireland, england and wales, it�*s the low to mid 20s. as we head into monday we hold on to this wetter, cloudier, breezier weather across north—west scotland. but the rest of scotland, northern ireland, england and wales again, once any morning mist and fog clears away, it�*ll be dry, sunny and very warm with temperatures ranging from 22 to 26 celsius. much warmer there for eastern scotland, too. and we hold on to those temperatures mid to maybe high 20s for england and wales. could see close to 30 degrees in one or two spots, otherwise they�*ll be turning more unsettled by the end of the week. voice-over: this is bbc news. we�*ll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. ken loach, britain�*s foremost politically engaged film—maker. his work explores issues of socialjustice, freedom and power and has twice won him the prestigious palme d�*or at the cannes film festival — in 2006 for the wind that shakes the barley, and ten years later for i, daniel blake, a contemporary british story about unemployment and poverty. go back to your desk and let her sign on and do the job that the taxpayer pays you for. in this episode of this cultural life, the radio 4 podcast, he reveals his formative influences and experiences, and how at the age of 86, he�*s still as fired up as ever. there�*s an anger. is there? i think that�*s what drives you. well, you can�*t see it happen... you can�*t see it happen and be indifferent, you know, you can�*t. if there�*s something that puts fuel in the tank, it�*s seeing hope destroyed, you know?