Concerns that disadvantaged Portsmouth and Hampshire students are trailing behind their peers
According to the annual Education Policy Institute report, disadvantaged GCSE students in Portsmouth and Hampshire were 23.6 months of learning behind their better-off peers nationally in 2019.
This has grown by 2.6 months since 2012, with the education gap in Portsmouth among the largest in England.
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Hide AdDisadvantaged GCSE students in Hampshire were 21.5 months of learning behind their better-off peers nationally in 2019, 0.3 months more since 2012, suggesting Hampshire's poorer students are falling further behind.
David Laws, executive chairman of the institute, said this comes despite the government's pledge to ‘level up’ regional inequalities.
He said: ‘Before the Covid crisis, disadvantaged children were around 1.5 years of learning behind other pupils, and this figure seems almost certain to have increased since the closure of schools.
‘It is deeply concerning that our country entered the pandemic with such a lack of progress in this key area of social policy, and the government urgently needs to put in place new policy measures to help poor children to start to close the gap again.’
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Hide AdNearly a third (32 per cent) of the area's secondary school pupils are classed as disadvantaged, meaning they were eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.
The report from the institute also found the education gap exists for disadvantaged young children in Portsmouth, with five-year-olds trailing by five months and primary school pupils 10.5 months behind.