In Building a Learning Nation, Chris Pratt and Allison Chin use powerful evidence to expose serious fault lines in the English learning and education system. The authors show that the result of a thirty-year political consensus on education has been growing child mental ill-health, high levels of educational underachievement, major skill shortages, and a crisis in the retention and recruitment of teachers. Increasing numbers of children leading dysfunctional home lives, coupled with ineffective government education and skills policies over decades, are identified as the principal causes. The book explains how these problems make a defining contribution to the country's sluggish economic performance and deep social divisions. Above all else, Building a Learning National provides a compelling case for change. Unlike other critiques of contemporary education it provides a well thought out, workable alternative: promoting lifelong learning for all; tackling underachievement; supporting families; radically changing the conditions within which schools operate; and developing the skills the nation needs.