This week’s A level results show that we still have a long way to go to close education inequalities across the country.
There is a long-standing attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers, but this gap has widened due to the unequal impact of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
Yesterday’s results reveal a stark contrast in grades between different regions. This builds on a trend over the past decade, which has seen a widening gap – in particular between London, which has had the top grades in the country for at least the past decade, and poorer regions such as the north east where I’m from, which alas is frequently at the bottom of rankings.
This reflects patterns of poverty in those areas, differences in demographics, as well as in the quality of schools. This year’s data shows that wealthier areas in the south have done better since 2019, whereas less well-off areas of the north have progressed more slowly, and in some cases fallen behind their pre-pandemic levels.
