Poorer pupils fell behind their peers last year by the largest degree on record, a think tank has found, as the Covid pandemic disrupted efforts to create a more equal playing field.
The long-standing attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and better-off classmates saw a bigger increase in 2021 than any other year in the past decade, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found.
It said much of the progress towards closing this divide was wiped out last year.
Labour said the research was “resounding evidence” the government was failing children, while a union said it exposed “deep-rooted inequalities” within education.
