‘Student national service can boost equality’
Undergraduates should tutor poorer children to increase social mobility, suggests academic
UNIVERSITY students should be drafted into a new “national service” to boost social mobility, a government adviser has said.
When undergraduates start their courses they could be automatically enrolled as maths or English tutors for underprivileged children at local schools, Prof Lee Elliot Major of Exeter
University has suggested. A recent report by the Social Mobility Commission found that social mobility in Britain has remained “virtually stagnant” since 2014, and that it was even in danger of going into reverse.
Earlier this year, Prof Major, who is the UK’s first professor of social mobility, was approached by government officials for ideas on how to “level up” the country.
He said that, rather than relying solely on regional or national authorities introducing policies, a more collective approach was required where the whole of society sees boosting social mobility as a shared responsibility.
“I think you could have some sort of national service, where people understand that a university education requires giving back in some way,” Prof Major told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We know that one-to-one tutoring helps to level the playing field for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It would also help undergraduates – they could get some life experience outside the ivory towers and it is something they could put on their CV.”
University students could be given basic training in tutoring and then assigned to a disadvantaged pupil at a school. Retired teachers might also be recruited as tutors for children in their local area.
National Service was introduced in 1939, as Britain entered the Second World War, initially with single men aged between 20 and 22 called up to serve in the army. Within a few months the age range was extended and from 1942 women were also expected to serve. National Service remained in place after the war and formally ended on Dec 31, 1960.
Private tuition has boomed in recent years, with more than a quarter of secondary school children signed up with tutors. A poll of more than 2,800 children aged 11-16 in England and Wales, commissioned by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust last year, found that 27 per cent had received private tuition, up from 18 per cent in 2005. A breakdown shows that around a third of those from “high affluence” backgrounds said they had private tuition, compared with a fifth of those from poorer homes.
Students who grow up in London are the most likely in the country to be tutored, with 41 per cent saying they have received private tuition, up from 34 per cent in 2005.
Prof Major said that children from underprivileged communities could also benefit from a longer school day. Ministers must acknowledge that in some parts of the country, schools essentially operate as “social welfare hubs” by providing free breakfasts and lunches to children from deprived backgrounds, he said. The social role of schools could be expanded to include medical and dental checks as well as mental healthcare for children, echoing a successful scheme in Harlem, New York, which led to the achievement gap between black and white children disappearing.
“There’s no reason why the Harlem approach couldn’t work in Hull, Doncaster or Blackpool,” Prof Major said.
He added that rather than being forced to retake English and maths GCSEs multiple times, students who are unable to pass their GCSEs should be able to leave school with a diploma to certify that they have basic literacy and numeracy skills.