Disadvantage on the rise in UK education
- Aug 27, 2020
- 1 min read
The annual report of the Education Policy Institute, published on 26th August, reveals that the disadvantage gap in schools has stopped closing for the first time in a decade. Key findings include:
- Disadvantaged pupils in England are 18.1 months of learning behind their peers by the time they finish their GCSEs – the same gap as five years ago.
- The gap at primary school increased for the first time since 2007 – which may signal that the gap is set to widen in the future.
- The stalling of the gap occurred even before the COVID-19 pandemic had hit the education system.
The report focuses on educational attainment in general, not specifically on literacy, but as a cornerstone of all learning, literacy acquisition is almost certainly following the same trajectory. To read the full report, visit https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/education-in-england-annual-report-2020/
