CYP Now - Attainment gap 'unchanged after 20 years'

The attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has seen “virtually no change” over the last two decades, with the Covid-19 pandemic “significantly worsening” outcomes for all children, a new report finds.

Disadvantaged children are more likely to achieve lower grades at GCSE despite having higher attainment in primary school, research finds. Picture: Adobe Stock

A report on education inequalities by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), funded by the Nuffield Foundation, finds that while GCSE attainment has been increasing over time, 16-year-olds who are eligible for free school meals are still around 27 percentage points less likely to achieve good GCSEs than less-disadvantaged peers.

It notes that even disadvantaged children who achieve expected levels of attainment when they leave primary school aged 11 are more likely to fall behind their non-disadvantaged classmates by the time they reach GCSEs.

“In the 2019 GCSE cohort, just 40 per cent of disadvantaged children who achieved the expected level at age 11 went on to earn good GCSEs in English and maths, compared with 60 per cent of their non-disadvantaged peers,” it states.

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