New strategy desperately needed to tackle age-old problem

The link between poverty and lower educational achievement has proved harder to tackle than hoped since devolution. Here David Egan, Professor of Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University looks at some of the reasons and possible actions that could help

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RESEARCH on the association between living in poverty and not doing well educationally has been a continuing focus.

In Wales, where intensive deindustrialisation in the 1980s led to a growth in poverty in what was already one of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of the UK, the link between poverty and low educational outcomes became a growing concern.

When devolution was achieved for Wales in 1999, one of its main aims for education was to narrow the “inequalities in achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged areas” and 25 years later this continues to be a major priority, which reflects that progress has been limited.

Other countries may have made greater advances in this area of education policy, but it remains a weakness in most education systems and in recent years previous progress appears to have halted.

What might the case of Wales suggest is the reason for this and what - if anything - might be done to bring about transformational change in future?

It can be argued that the fundamental weakness of the Welsh response to what patently is a highly challenging and complex problem, has been the lack of a consistent and strategic approach. From the outset of devolution, it was recognised that schools alone could not address the profound issues involved.