This week’s GCSE results, alongside last week’s A-Level results, show a resilient cohort of young people of whom we can be proud, after so much education disruption during Covid. But they also show concerning evidence of a continuing education divide, with London students getting a significantly higher percentage of top GSCE grades, at 28.4%, compared to those in the bottom-placed region, the north-east, with just 17.6%. It’s a similar picture for other regions in the north, and shows a gap getting bigger since last year.
Unprecedented levels of unauthorised school absences point to ongoing growing challenges ahead. We are seeing the generational impact of Covid on education inequalities and they fall disproportionately on the most disadvantaged people and places across our country. Doing nothing is not an option. Even before Covid, the 2019 Conservative Manifesto promised to “level up” Britain, committing the government to turbocharging progress closing existing education inequalities.
