Record Increase In Gap Between U.K.’s Poorest Students And Their Classmates

The education gap between the poorest children in the U.K. and their peers has seen the biggest increase on record, wiping out a decade’s worth of progress, according to a new study.

The findings suggest that disadvantaged students are now the equivalent of a grade-and-a-third behind their classmates by the time they come to take public examinations at 16.

“The learning losses during the pandemic appear to have reversed much of the progress in closing the disadvantage gap between poor children and the rest of the last decade,” said David Laws, executive chairman of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), the think tank that commissioned the research.

“The gap increased by the largest amount we have seen since we have been able to monitor this key statistic.

“This highlights that there is much more the government needs to do to support schools in reducing learning losses – particularly schools in poorer areas and those with large numbers of disadvantaged students,” he added.

Analysis of official results data found that in 2021 the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their classmates by the age of 16 widened by 0.1 grades – the largest single year increase since comparable statistics have been available – and taking the overall gap to 1.34 grades.

Disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic meant grades in 2021 were awarded based on teacher assessment rather than external examination.

While research has found teacher-assessed grades are biased against disadvantaged students, the gap did not widen in 2020, when grades were also based on teacher assessment.

Today’s report also found that the gap between persistently poor children – those in poverty for 80% or more of their time in school – and their peers had also widened.

And progress in narrowing the gap – which had already stalled pre-pandemic – has now reversed and is back to 2011 proportions.

“These persistently poor children have outcomes which are dramatically worse than other poor children – on average they are likely to be two whole years behind non-disadvantaged children by age 16,” said Emily Hunt, associate director at the EPI.

“Unless wider social and economic policy can help halt this increase in persistent and deep poverty, it will be very tough for schools to deliver by themselves the greater social mobility and ‘levelling up’ that the government says it wants to deliver.”

The gap also widened among students aged 16-19, after two years of relative stability, with students taking applied or vocational qualifications faring worse than those following a more academic route.

The findings are a stark reminder of the inequality entrenched in schools and the scale of the challenge closing the attainment gap presents, said Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, a charity that works to end the link between family income and educational achievement.

“Educators are doing everything in their power to recover and boost socio-economically disadvantaged pupils’ learning, but they cannot do it alone,” she said.

“We have a collective responsibility to ensure that a child’s background doesn’t limit their life chances.”

Among the recommendations in the report are increased funding for disadvantaged students, improved identification of students who suffer from persistent disadvantage, and further research into the causes of poorer outcomes for students from less affluent backgrounds.