• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Elevenses
  • Business
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Property
  • JOBS
  • All
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Sport
    • Tech/Auto
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Elevenses

Elevenses: Education’s Have-Nots

Just like that, ‘education, education, education’ becomes ‘money, money, money’.

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
2023-08-22 12:36
in Elevenses
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

This article originally appeared in our Elevenses newsletter.

There are certain decisions in politics that, whether our leaders like it or not, are out of their control. Boris Johnson’s decision to plunge the country into successive lockdowns certainly wasn’t driven by political will. Nor was Liz Truss’s decision to sack her chancellor after just 38 days and then follow him out of the door a mere 11 days later. But there’s another kind of decision they make not because they feel compelled to or circumstances dictate, but because they want to. 

On ​​Wednesday 27th October 2021, Rishi Sunak made a choice. Having been advised by the government’s education recovery tsar Sir Kevan Collins to make funds available for a school catch-up scheme aimed at helping pupils recover ground lost during Covid, he announced that less than a third of the funds would actually be provided because, and I quote, “I can’t say yes to everybody”. The decision was described as profoundly disappointing by Sir Kevan, who warned that it would be a “step towards a less equal society” and have a long-term “scarring effect” on children who already have the cards stacked against them. 

His counsel has proved to be profoundly prophetic. A-level results out last week showed that pupils in private schools are now more than twice as likely to achieve A or A* grades as those in the state sector. While 47.4 per cent of pupils in private schools achieved at least one A or A* grade, only 22 per cent did so in secondary comprehensives, 25.4 per cent in academies and just 14.2 per cent in state further education institutions. Lee Elliot Major, social mobility professor at the University of Exeter, said the stark academic gap between private and state schools is now wider than it was before the pandemic after the results were revealed, adding that “for education’s have-nots, the dials are all pointing in the wrong direction”. 

Education is somewhat of a sore point for me. Not long after Sunak had completed his schooling at the £33,990 per annum Winchester College (£45,936 if they board) I entered the local comprehensive in south Leeds where I was put through a system creaking under the strain of swollen class sizes and a chronic lack of resources. Unlike Winchester, where students are taught to excel and handed the resources to do so, the comprehensives teach their pupils to pass, if they can, and turn up, at the very least, which can also be a stretch too far. At GCSEs, I was put on an English language paper (like most pupils) that allowed me to achieve a C at best. The fact that I am now the editor of a newspaper and a published author proves what meagre levels of expectation were put upon us. 

And that’s the important bit, because for school-aged kids nine-tenths of the outcome will be dictated by what message we’re sending them. Pupils at Winchester, Eton and Harrow are told they are going to be the next chancellor of the exchequer or the next prime minister and in a disproportionately high number of cases they are the ones who fill those positions. They get told they are going to be the next CEOs, the next newspaper editors and the next top surgeons and time and time again that’s usually what they become. When Sunak snubbed the school catch-up scheme in ‘21 he wasn’t withholding money, he was sending a message, a message that this is a country of the educational haves and the educational have-nots, and for most people that is a decision that is out of their control. 

Sign up to Elevenses for free here: www.thelondoneconomic.com/newsletter

RelatedPosts

Elevenses: The Most Expensive White Elephant in UK History

Elevenses: Realignment, Realignment, Realignment

Elevenses: Has the Left Abandoned the Working Class?

Elevenses: Blair’s Heir

Tags: headlinetrending
Previous Post

Judge Rinder calls for law change after Lucy Letby’s refusal to attend sentencing

Next Post

Woman who lost cousin to drugs says decriminalisation calls ‘give hope’

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

More from TLE

Kevin McCloud slams Tories over ‘deliberately muddled policy’

Wetherspoons puts more pubs up for sale after shedding 30 already

Police officers accused of staging ‘industrial protest’ as dozens down tools

Labour accuses Government of being ‘complicit’ in trophy trade

How Energy Consumption Patterns Influence Economic Trends

‘British democracy can reverse Brexit’ – March For Rejoin issues rallying cry

HS2 costs ‘out of control’ but says no decision made on cuts, Chancellor suggests

Russell Brand pleads with fans to support him financially after YouTube cuts revenue

Boris Johnson blasts Sunak for ‘lack of ambition’ on net zero

Steve Coogan and Carol Vorderman back Lib Dem calls for electoral reform

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




-->