Poorer pupils in England and Wales are falling “significantly” behind their peers, according to a report.
Research by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found that in 2019, before the pandemic, the gap between poorer pupils and their peers was 22-23 months in Wales and around 18 months in England.
The gap has narrowed slightly in both countries since 2011, but the EPI said progress appears to have “stalled recently”.
In Wales, the biggest differences in disadvantage by area were 25-28 months, the EPI found. In England, the biggest attainment gap of around 25 months was found in Blackpool.
Students living in long-term and persistent poverty lag even further behind their peers in both countries. In England, the persistent disadvantage gap equates to around 23 months of schooling, while in Wales it is 29 months.
There has been almost no improvement in this measure over the past decade. The EPI said policymakers must do more to reduce the gaps, particularly in Wales, where it is “significantly worse”.
The researchers said comparisons between England and Wales could be “challenging” because English qualifications were reformed in 2015, while performance measures in the two nations have changed over time.
But the EPI said that while Wales has a wider attainment gap at GCSE level than England, progress in closing the gap in both nations has been “modest” over the past 10 years. He called for a renewed emphasis on reducing disparities in school disadvantage.
Pupils from poorer backgrounds were much less likely to reach the top quintile of GCSE results and more likely to be in the bottom quintile in both nations, with “less mobility in Wales than England”. the study found.
The EPI said local authorities in Wales should adopt measures from poorer areas in England that have managed to keep the gap in disadvantage smaller over time. It says that targeting extra funding to poorer schools has proven effective in reducing the disadvantage gap and that more funding should be specifically targeted at pupils experiencing persistent poverty in both nations.
EPI said measures such as attracting high-quality teachers to poorer areas through salary supplements and individual and small-group tutoring had also been shown to reduce achievement gaps.
The government’s flagship national learning program aims to help pupils catch up on learning missed during the pandemic, but the decision to de-focus the poorest pupils has been criticized by social mobility experts.
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The Government has also announced a teacher boost bonus where eligible maths, physics, chemistry and IT teachers can receive a £3,000 bonus to teach in poorer areas from 2022 to 2025.
Luke Sibietta, EPI research fellow, said: “The gap in educational outcomes between poor children and the rest is too wide in both England and Wales.
“But the results for Wales are particularly worrying – poor children are almost two years late taking their GCSEs on average, compared to 18 months in England. And children who are in long-term poverty in Wales are almost two-and-a-half years behind, compared with just under two years in England.
“Politicians in both countries should redouble their efforts to give poorer children a better chance in life, and Welsh politicians should consider whether there are lessons they can learn from England’s best-performing areas where the gaps are much smaller.”
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