Response to the EPI’s annual education report

Responding to the EPI’s annual education report Gail Tolley, Chair of the ADCS Educational Achievement Policy Committee, said:

“The Education Policy Institute has identified some key issues in its annual report for the new Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education to focus on in order to improve children and young people’s life chances, enabling them to become happy, productive future citizens.

“Some progress has been made in narrowing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers in primary school, however, the gap has widened in secondary school. There are disparities in attainment between certain ethnic backgrounds with the gap between Black Caribbean pupils and their White British counterparts widening since 2011 and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities remain significantly behind their peers at every stage of their education. These findings are at odds with efforts to improve social mobility and create an inclusive education system.

“Removing barriers to learning matters to directors of children’s services because we are responsible for ensuring the local education system works for all children in our local areas, and it should matter to this government too. Properly funding local authorities and schools to meet the wide-ranging needs of children and young people, including the most vulnerable would be a good starting point. Our collective ambition must be to close the gap in attainment as a matter of urgency. Our children should not have to wait 500 years for this.”

ENDS

---

---