Schools can close gaps – but they can’t fix inequality

It has been wonderful to see young people celebrating their GCSE results – a tribute to their hard work and that of their teachers and schools. Yet it is hard to avoid the nagging feeling that the grade they get depends on some factors outside their control. Decisions by the regulator on grade boundaries, for example. Or where they live. Or how rich their parents are.

Impetus have shown that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds have half the chance of getting a pass grade in English and maths as their more privileged peers. The Northern Powerhouse has reminded us that gaps between the north and south are widening. Teach First’s own analysis of Department for Education data tells the story of how gaps at school limit opportunities later on: poorer students are more than twice as likely (33 per cent) not to be in sustained work or education five years after GCSEs, compared to their wealthier peers (14 per cent). In fact, they are more likely to be out of sustained work or education than they are to go to university (27 per cent).

The gaps are large, they are meaningful, and they are persistent. We know that young people from the toughest backgrounds can achieve outstanding grades. And we know that schools who serve low-income communities can achieve results that would be the envy of top private schools. These unequal outcomes are a societal choice, not a law of nature.

So we could get schools to work harder and fund some catch up interventions. But schools are stretched to the limit already, we face a harsh winter and, as we have seen through the pandemic, schools are too often the ‘welfare state of last resort’. This winter, they will be feeding, clothing, warming and advising students and families. One wonders where they might fit the teaching in.

If we are going to do change within the education system, we need to look to big, universal, background reforms that tackle the basics. Teacher salaries – properly funded, of course – for example. Curriculum, teacher development. Adjusting the pupil premium to focus on persistent disadvantage would also help – and begin to narrow some of the gaps between North and South. It seems harsh to say but, bad as it is that some families will be slipping into poverty for the first time, this should not obscure the plight of those that have spent their whole life in poverty.

This is if we are going to make change in education. But I increasingly feel that the solutions to the problems that schools face will need to be found outside schools. As a long-term campaigner for increased school funding, it is painful to now wonder whether, given an extra £5billion to raise educational standards, I would choose to spend it all on schools. Perhaps the most powerful way to reduce the disadvantage gap would be to simply reduce disadvantage?

I still believe schools are incredibly powerful institutions who can and do break the cycle of disadvantage. But how much more could they do if they weren’t compensating for neglect and disadvantage elsewhere? A simple cash transfer to families of children living in persistent poverty would raise educational standards, for example. I would then add to the pupil premium, weight it towards persistent disadvantage and extend it backwards to the early years and forwards to post-16.

It is also increasingly clear that job opportunities drive skills – at least as much as skills create job opportunities. It is a poor incentive to study if the consequence of your effort is the need to move hundreds of miles from home to take advantage of your skills. So steer economic opportunity to areas of seemingly low educational attainment and you will see the education system rise to meet the occasion. Business has a significant role to play here then: connect the front of your ‘talent pipelines’ to schools serving low-income communities: the reward will not only be social impact, but increased loyalty and diversity.

There are no more assets to sweat and complex interventions can make things worse. We need simple, universal reforms that make the work of schools easier. And many of these will be found beyond the school gates – correcting the corrosive effects of long-term poverty and spreading the incentives provided by well-paying, meaningful careers. We will then find that our schools can achieve more than ever.