Tackling educational inequality - CentreForum

Tackling educational inequality
:
Executive Summary
The intractable tail
Despite improvements to average levels of pupil attainment since 1997,
there remains a large and intractable tail of pupils who consistently fail to
meet minimum standards of literacy and numeracy. This tail is disproportionately
made up of children from economically deprived backgrounds.
When the pupil population is viewed as a whole, the statistics are
alarming enough. In 2006, 20 per cent of pupils failed to achieve
national standards in literacy at Key Stage 2 (age 11) and 24 per cent
in numeracy. In the same year 41 per cent of pupils failed to reach the
undemanding national standard of five good GCSEs (excluding English
and maths) and 56 per cent fell below standard when English and maths
were included. When the performance of the most deprived children is
examined in isolation, the true depth of the problem is exposed. Of all
those eligible for free school meals, only 19.5 per cent currently achieve
five good GCSEs (including English and maths).
The die is cast at an early stage but the English education system does
nothing to recast it. Recent research shows that by the age of three,
children from disadvantaged homes are typically up to a year behind
in their learning compared to their more privileged peers. By the time
children reach university age the contrast is extreme. While 44 per cent
of young people now go to university, only 17 per cent of those whose
parents are in the bottom income quartile move on to higher education.
The equivalent figure for the United States is 50 per cent.
In the face of this deep educational inequality, the British political
debate continues to fall hostage to the needs of middle income Britain
rather than those of the ‘voiceless’ bottom quartile. Thus, Conservative
education spokesman David Willetts’ attempt to raise the issue of
educational inequality has been drowned in an emotional tide of concern
about the status of the remaining 164 grammar schools. The argument
for more grammar schools is in many ways a distraction. As Willetts
rightly pointed out, grammar schools are educating only a tiny number
of truly disadvantaged children, and a much smaller proportion than live
in the areas in which they are situated.