GCSE gap grows as poor pupils fall 18 months behind
Poor teenagers are 18 months behind their wealthier peers in GCSE attainment as progress in closing the divide has come to a standstill, a report has revealed.
The gap between disadvantaged pupils and others widened between 2017 and 2018, halting progress for the first time since 2011.
research concluded that it will take more than five centuries for the gap to close if the most recent five-year trend continues.
The Education Policy Institute’s annual report found that disadvantage gaps are larger – and growing – in parts of northern England.
researchers calculated that in 2018 poorer students were generally around 9.2 months behind at the end of primary school.
By the time they took their GCSEs, they were lagging by 18.1 months in average attainment in English and maths. This figure grew by 0.2 since 2017.
For all GCSE subjects, the figure remained unchanged from 2017 at 18.4 months. The research compared pupils eligible for free school meals at any time in a six-year period with better- off peers. The most persistently disadvantaged students – eligible for free meals for at least 80 per cent of their time in school – are almost two years (22.6 months) behind by the time they leave secondary school.
EPI’s executive chairman David Laws, a former Liberal Democrat schools minister, called the findings a ‘major setback’ for social mobility. He said: ‘Educational inequality on this scale is bad for both social mobility and economic productivity. This report should be a wakeup call for our new Prime Minister.
‘We need a renewed policy drive to narrow the disadvantage gap – and this needs to be based on evidence of what makes an impact, rather than on political ideology or guesswork.’ However, the Government claimed the gap had ‘narrowed considerably’ in recent years.
School standards minister Nick Gibb stressed: ‘We are investing £2.4billion this year alone through the Pupil Premium to help the most disadvantaged children. Teachers and school leaders are helping to drive up standards right across the country, with 85 per cent of children now in good or outstanding schools compared to just 66 per cent in 2010.
‘But there is more to do to continue to attract and retain talented individuals in our classrooms.’
Labour education spokesman Angela rayner said: ‘Successive Tory governments have cut school budgets for the first time in a generation and slashed funding from Sure Start to further education, and now we are seeing the consequences.
‘Sadly there is no reason to expect that will change with the new Prime Minister and Education Secretary, who are intent on handing out yet more massive tax giveaways to the super-rich rather than investing in all our children.’
Paul Whiteman, of school leaders’ union NAHT, said the widening gap must not ‘become a turning point’ after progress in recent years. He called for ‘an immediate multi-billion-pound emergency investment’.
Mr Whiteman said this should come ‘alongside a long-term commitment to sufficient education funding’ and investment in services schools and families rely on. He claimed: ‘Without this, any promises of a brighter future will fail.’
‘Major setback for social mobility’