The attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has seen “virtually no change” over the last two decades, with the Covid-19 pandemic “significantly worsening” outcomes for all children, a new report finds.
A report on education inequalities by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), funded by the Nuffield Foundation, finds that while GCSE attainment has been increasing over time, 16-year-olds who are eligible for free school meals are still around 27 percentage points less likely to achieve good GCSEs than less-disadvantaged peers.
It notes that even disadvantaged children who achieve expected levels of attainment when they leave primary school aged 11 are more likely to fall behind their non-disadvantaged classmates by the time they reach GCSEs.
