Commenting on the Education Policy Institute’s annual report,
which shows that the attainment gap between poorer pupils and
their peers continued to widen in 2022, Geoff Barton, General
Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“It is desperately dispiriting news that not only has the
attainment gap widened, but there has been no progress over the
past decade in tackling the gap for the most disadvantaged
children. Clearly, the disruption caused by the pandemic has had
a huge impact, and the government’s failure to back education
recovery with sufficient investment has made it all-the-more
difficult to regain lost ground. But the problems go deeper than
that. Teacher shortages are critical, funding is impossibly
tight, mental health problems are on the rise, the SEND system is
under huge pressure, and buildings are literally crumbling. We
have an accountability system which not only fails to recognise
these issues, but which actively makes things worse, stigmatising
schools and colleges and driving people out of the profession.
And we have an appallingly high rate of child poverty in the UK
affecting nearly 30% of children.
“This has a huge impact on the educational attainment of these
young people – too often consigning them to an intergenerational
cycle of disadvantage. The government both now and in the future
– whatever its political complexion – must deal with these issues
in order to narrow the attainment gap. A good start would be to
put into practice the recommendation of the EPI to target
increased levels of funding to the most disadvantaged pupils.”
