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| Help for families ‘is answer to underclass’ |
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| MARTIN WILLIAMS |
May 04 2004 |
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BRINGING adult outsiders into failing families to act as mentors is crucial to tackling the problem of Scotland's growing underclass, a Nobel Prize-winning economist will argue today.
Professor James Heckman, a Chicago University-based specialist in economic development in smaller countries, believes that early intervention in what he calls dysfunctional families is the key to Scotland's economic future.
He believes that adult outsiders can be used to help children and can improve discipline and youth development.
Mentoring programmes in the United States have already provided positive social and academic impacts on participants, he argues.
He says Scotland is developing an underclass of low-skilled workers born out of low levels of literacy and numeracy.
He warns: "The growing proportion of out-of-wedlock births and single-parent families bodes ill for the future of the Scottish workforce because such families are known to produce impaired children who perform poorly in school, the workplace and the society at large."
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