Poor pupils 18 months behind rich classmates at GCSE, report finds

POOR teenagers are around 18 months behind their richer classmates in any given GCSE subject, according to a report.

It suggests the attainment gap has narrowed by around a month in the space of a year.

But the Education Policy Institute’s (EPI) report also concludes that progress in closing the gulf in English and maths has stalled, and at current rates the gap could take a century to be eradicated.

The findings are based on an analysis of Government data, looking at the achievement in England of pupils in 2017 who have been eligible for free school meals - a key measure of poverty - at any time in a sixyear period, compared with their better-off peers.

The researchers calculated that in general, disadvantaged pupils were around 9.4 months behind their wealthier classmates at the end of primary school.

By the time they took their GCSEs, poorer students were 18.4 months behind in terms of average GCSE grade per subject.

This has narrowed from 19.3 months in 2016, the report said.

It added that the gap has narrowed due to more pupils, including poorer youngsters, switching to core academic subjects, as these are the courses recognised in the Government’s English baccalaureate and prioritised in the Progress 8 measure, which looks at performance and progress across eight GCSE subjects.

These types of courses tend to have smaller achievement gaps, the EPI said. Looking at English language and maths only, the report said the achievement gap was 18 months, compared with 18.1 in 2016.

It calculates that at this rate of progress, it would take “well over 100 years for the disadvantage gap in English and maths to close”.