CYP Now - DfE must publish plan to reduce post-pandemic disadvantage gap, say researchers

Researchers are urging the government to publish a plan setting out how it will reduce the disadvantage gap in the wake of the pandemic.

The EPI is calling for improved ways for schools to identify pupils living in persistent poverty. Picture: Monkey Business/Adobe Stock

“The strategy should clarify the government’s level of ambition regarding educational inequalities, should assess the effectiveness of existing policies aimed at reducing disadvantage, and should set out a pathway to implementation based on the best available evidence,” states the Education Policy Institute’s (EPI) latest annual report which makes the call to ministers.

The report highlights wider disadvantage gaps in 2022 than in 2019, after the Covid-19 pandemic.

By the end of secondary school, disadvantaged pupils were more than 18.8 months behind their peers – the widest level since 2021.

The report also calls for higher levels of funding for disadvantaged pupils, weighted more heavily towards persistently disadvantaged pupils.

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