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Rich-poor attainment gap has grown across England'
The Guardian
|July 16, 2024
The attainment gap between 16-yearolds from low-income families and their wealthier classmates has grown across all regions of England since before the pandemic with the sole exception of London, according to research.
Disadvantaged pupils are now more than 19 months behind their peers by the time they sit their GCSES, with the gap having widened at every stage of their schooling aged five, 11 and 16, according to the Education Policy Institute (EPI) thinktank.
The report compared the educational attainment of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils between 2019 and 2023 and found disadvantaged pupils in London continued to have higher attainment than anywhere else in England.
Across the country, those described as persistently disadvantaged pupils eligible for free school meals for at least 80% of their time in school - were even further behind their wealthier peers, with a gap of two years by age 16.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, described it as "a national tragedy".
This story is from the July 16, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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