The educational attainment gap has stopped closing but school policies alone cannot create the fair opportunities every child deserves

The Centre for Education and Youth’s Chief Executive, Loic Menzies today responded with concern to new findings from the Education Policy Institute showing that the educational attainment gap between disadvantaged young people and their peers had stopped narrowing.

Commenting on the report Loic said: “Today’s report from the Education Policy Institute shows that despite a decade of radical education reform, equity in education remains an elusive dream. Now is the time to recognise that school policies alone cannot create the fair opportunities every child deserves. Instead, the government now needs to commit to levelling up the full range of services that children and their families depend on.” 

EPI’s report suggested that growing poverty may explain the trends it identified, with an increasing proportion of disadvantaged pupils facing ‘persistent poverty’. Unsurprisingly it is these pupils whose learning is most dramatically curtailed.
CfEY’s work has consistently pointed towards a need to look beyond the classroom, to the full range of services that shape young people’s transitions to adulthood, as well as the poverty and inequality that limit opportunities in so many communities.

Loic’s comments have been widely reported in the sector including in the TES and Schools Week.