Call for more investment to bridge GCSE gap between rich and poor

POORER PUPILS are falling further behind their richer classmates in GCSE achievement, official figures show.

Gaps in the proportions of disadvantaged and advantaged students being entered for, and achieving, the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) as well as attainment over eight GCSE grades have all widened, data published by the Department for Education shows.

The EBacc is a measure that recognises pupils who take a suite of core academic GCSEs – English, maths, science, history or geography and a foreign language.

The latest data shows that 27.5 per cent of disadvantaged teenagers were entered for all of the EBacc subjects last year, compared with 44.5 per cent of all other students – a gap of 17 percentage points.

In 2018, the gap was 16.4 percentage points (26.4 per cent versus 42.8 per cent).

In addition, the statistics show that the EBacc average points score for pupils from poorer homes was 3.08, compared with 4.43 for those from wealthier backgrounds – a difference of 1.35. In 2018, the difference was 1.33.

Pupils are considered to be disadvantaged if they have been eligible for free school meals, if they have been looked after, or if they are recorded as being adopted from care.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “Children from disadvantaged backgrounds have disproportionately suffered from cuts not just to education, but to all the wider services.

“Successive governments have failed to invest in those who need it the most, and now we see the result.”

However, School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers remains stable and is down by around nine per cent since 2011, but he recognised “there is more to do”.