THE independent think tank, the Education Policy Institute, published its 2019 annual report on the state of education in England last month and the results are damning. 

It reveals that children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families will be nearly two years behind their wealthier peers by the end of secondary school, with the cause of this being traced back even before their birth.

The EPI published an infographic showing the lives of two children from different backgrounds. One a working-class child, the other a more wealthy child. 

Through each stage of childhood the wealthy child accumulates advantages while poverty negatively affects the poorer child. In the words of the report, they “weigh down the attainment of a disadvantaged child.” 

The learning age gap now in GCSE results between wealthy and disadvantaged pupils stands at 18.4 months. 

Although this gap had been narrowing, it has once again started to grow as the effects of nearly a decade of Tory austerity start to kick in. 

Between 2017 and 2018 the gap had widened by 0.1 month for all GCSEs and 0.2 months for GCSEs in English and maths. 

If this year is an anomaly, and the gap does start to close again, then at the current rate it will take over 500 years for there to be an equality of outcomes. 

The EPI points out though the very real risk of this year not being an anomaly. There’s a “real risk that we could be at a turning point and that we could soon enter a period where the gap starts to widen.”

The report concludes that it is likely that austerity is to blame for the widening gap at secondary level, with pupils at this age more likely to be exposed to austerity measures. It also points to the massive cuts that schools have faced as a contributing factor. 

Schools have faced multimillion-pound cuts since the coalition government came to power in 2010, leaving schools, many serving the most vulnerable in society, with massive deficits. 

In fact the School Cuts campaign estimates that schools and colleges need £12.6 billion per year by 2022/23 to put a halt to the decline. 

At the same time the grassroots Labour campaign, Labour Against Private Schools #AbolishEton, points out that pupils at private schools receive 300 per cent more per pupil in funding.

This funding gap hits those who need it most the hardest. The education select committee, in a recent report, demanded that “the Department for Education must make the strongest possible case to the Treasury for sufficient funds to finance the widening high-needs deficit, projected to be over £1 billion by 2021.”

The gaps have a distinct north/south divide. The report found that the disadvantage gap is still generally larger in many areas in the north of England and, particularly the north-west, where the gaps have been widening in more areas in both primary and secondary phases since 2012. 

At age 16 the disadvantage gaps in GCSE English and maths were equivalent to over two years of learning (almost one third larger than the national average) in three local authorities. These were: Blackpool, Peterborough and Rotherham. 

This is hardly surprising after successive governments have implemented policies which have destroyed these communities, starting with deindustrialisation and ending with austerity. 

The problem though cannot be solved through education funding alone. As the report illustrates, these problems start before the child is even born. 

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn posted on Twitter that “the system is failing working-class children — we need to invest not just in schools but in early intervention, housing and healthcare so children can reach their full potential.”

A disadvantaged child’s mother is less likely to have a healthy pregnancy free of stress and ill health. A disadvantaged child is more likely to grow up in poor housing conditions in a community blighted by poverty. 

A disadvantaged child is less likely to access good-quality early years provision. This all points to the need for much joined-up thinking by the government. 

A new programme of housebuilding, a focus on free universal early years education with highly qualified teachers and a relaunch of the Sure Start scheme would be a good start. 

Without these measures and investment in education, we are in danger of the gap once again widening and leaving behind a generation of working-class children.

Robert Poole is a campaigner for Labour Against Private Education, NEU member and secondary school geography teacher from Bolton who has spent his career working in some of the country’s most deprived regions.