MPs told to bridge regional school gap
THE GOVERNMENT has been warned by former Chancellor George Osborne that Ministers need to show “overall ambition and leadership” to bridge the North-South divide in education standards.
Mr Osborne said yesterday that improving education in northern England should be a priority for the Government. He has called for children in the North to be given the same opportunities to attend good or outstanding schools as those in London.
Appearing before MPs for the first time since leaving office, Mr Osborne said: “You need the Government to say ‘one of our big ideas is we are going to improve education in the North of England as part of building a Northern Powerhouse and we, the national government, will be judged against this and this is our big plan and we are going to get on with it.
“From that lots of things will flow, all the different departments’ initiatives will take off. But you need the overall ambition and the overall leadership to deliver that.”
Mr Osborne, who as Chancellor helped drive the so-called Northern Powerhouse agenda, called for significant reforms to help schools teaching children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Currently, 94 per cent of London children in secondary schools attend a school rated outstanding or good, compared with 74 per cent across the North.
Bridging the gap to London would mean an extra 430,000 northern children across the whole school system in 2022 would have the opportunity to attend an outstanding or good secondary school.
Former MP Mr Osborne, the chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) think tank, was appearing before the Commons Education Committee.
The NPP’s plans involve encouraging businesses to play a greater role in sponsoring academies and mentoring youngsters in the North. Other measures include creating a Northern Board to oversee the large multi-academy trusts operating in the region.
A scheme to make every child school-ready should be rolled out across the North. The initiative is currently led by Greater Manchester, where 12,000 children are estimated to start school without core skills such as speaking in full sentences, holding a book or knowing how to use the toilet. The NPP said ministers should establish more opportunity areas – aimed at improving education and increasing social mobility – including at least one in the North-East.
The Department for Education said the Government was investing £70m to “boost school performance in the north as part of the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy”.