By stewartb
‘It’s rich for English Education minister Gillian Keegan to claim English schools are superior ..’
That’s an understatement! However, no doubt she feels able to do this because of the dire state of the mainstream media that supposedly ‘serves’ Scotland. Scotland on Sunday accepted her opinion piece but will it undertake ANY critical assessment on behalf of its readers of Ms Keegan’s claims ?
It is in this context that it seems wholly relevant to highlight a recent report on the education system THAT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of Ms Keegan and her predecessors as Secretaries of State in Westminster.
Source: NESTA and Education Policy Institute (December 2023) Education: the fundamentals – eleven facts about the education system in England. Report from NESTA’s UK 2040 Options study (https://options2040.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Education_the-fundamentals.pdf )
Here just some extracts (with my emphasis):
– ‘There are persistent gaps in attainment between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. IN 2022, THIS GAP WAS EQUIVALENT TO AROUND 19 MONTHS OF LEARNING BY THE TIME PUPILS SAT THEIR GCSEs.
– ‘Around 40 per cent of the gap at age 16 is already visible at age 5 ..
– ‘For pupils in primary and secondary schools, the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had stopped closing even before the pandemic.
– ‘The gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers widened over the course of the pandemic such that THE DISADVANTAGE GAP IN 2022 WAS THE HIGHEST IT HAD BEEN IN A DECADE IN THE EARLY YEARS (4.8 MONTHS), AT THE END OF PRIMARY SCHOOL (10.3 MONTHS), AND AT GCSE (18.8 MONTHS).
– ‘Based on the trend in closing the gap up until 2016, WE WERE ABLE TO PREDICT THAT THE GAP WOULD CLOSE WITHIN AROUND 50 YEARS. That would have meant that, by 2040, we would be around halfway to fully closing the gap. However, THE WIDENING OF THE GAP OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS HAS MEANT WE CAN NO LONGER PREDICT WHEN IT WILL CLOSE IF, INDEED, IT EVER WILL.
– ‘THERE ARE STARK DIFFERENCES IN THE OUTCOMES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. In summer 2022, AROUND A QUARTER OF STUDENTS IN LONDON COMPLETED COMPULSORY SCHOOLING HAVING NOT ACHIEVED A GRADE 4 (CONSIDERED TO BE A STANDARD PASS) IN ENGLISH AND MATHEMATICS. Across the north of England this increased to a third, and in some parts of the country, as many as a half of students did not achieve this threshold, that is critical to many opportunities of further study or employment.
– Going into the pandemic we could see well established geographic variation in the outcomes for pupils from low-income backgrounds. IN SOME AREAS, POORER PUPILS WERE OVER TWO FULL YEARS OF EDUCATION BEHIND THEIR PEERS BY THE TIME THEY SAT THEIR GCSES, including in Blackpool (26.3 months), Knowsley (24.7 months) and Plymouth (24.5 months).
– ‘Per pupil spending in schools is not yet back to levels from 2010.
– ‘England has relatively low literacy and numeracy scores amongst non-tertiary educated young adults compared with other OECD countries.
– ‘The government is recruiting fewer than two-thirds of the secondary teachers it needs, and a third of teachers leave within five years.
Perspective is a valuable thing. It is a crucial counter to the gaslighting of Scotland.
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From the same NESTA/Education Policy Institute report, considering tertiary education in England (with my emphasis):
– ‘GRADUATES NOW OWE AN AVERAGE AMOUNT OF £45,600, and STUDENT LOAN DEBT IN ENGLAND HAS NOW SURPASSED £200BN. It is now expected that by the mid-2040s, total student debt will reach £460bn.
– ‘Following changes to the repayment period and minimum income threshold from this September, the average graduate will pay back around £5,700 more than before. Whilst there will be no change for the very lowest earners, THOSE IN THE SECOND DECILE WILL BE NEARLY £18,000 WORSE OFF WHILE THOSE IN THE NINTH DECILE WILL BENEFIT BY £25,000. These changes will also affect women more than men with an average increase of £12,400. This is because women on average earn less over their lifetimes, and take more time out of the labour market when young than men.
– ‘Overall, YOUNG PEOPLE FROM LOW-INCOME BACKGROUNDS ARE STILL LESS LIKELY TO ENTER HIGHER EDUCATION AT ALL. While an increasing number of young people have progressed to higher education in recent years, THE GAP IN ACCESS BETWEEN POORER AND MORE AFFLUENT STUDENTS REMAINS STARK: students from the most affluent areas are twice as likely to enter higher education than those in the most deprived areas. Students from the most affluent areas are four times more likely to progress to high tariff universities than students from the most deprived areas.
– much of the gap in progression to higher education is explained by the wide gap in attainment at GCSE
– ‘Despite its importance to the wider economy, THE BUDGET FOR ADULT EDUCATION HAS CONTINUOUSLY FALLEN OVER THE LAST DECADE. This includes A 38 PER CENT REDUCTION IN EXPENDITURE ON ADULT EDUCATION AND APPRENTICESHIPS BETWEEN 2010-11 AND 2020-21, and a 50 per cent cut in classroom-based education.
– ‘There is also a well-documented employer underinvestment in employee training. Findings from the Employer Skills Survey (ESS) in 2022 indicate that THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF TRAINING DAYS PER TRAINEE FELL FROM 7.9 IN 2011 TO 5.9 IN 2022, AND FROM 4.3 TO 3.5 PER EMPLOYEE. There is a shortage of incentives for employers to invest in employee development when set against other priorities for the reinvestment of profits.’
One can easily construct the ‘outraged’ headlines from BBC Scotland and the mainstream media that ‘serves’ Scotland if this NESTA/Education Policy Institute report was about Scotland’s education system! One can readily imagine the response of opposition politicians if this was about Scotland! Any media reaction, any political reaction in England?
In the absence of balanced media coverage – in the presence of a context- and perspective- free news coverage – is there any other option when countering the gaslighting of Scotland than to risk the charge of whataboutery?
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Compare this 👇
https://www.gov.scot/news/achievement-of-curriculum-for-excellence-cfe-levels-2022-23/
Official statistics have been released today on school pupils’ Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels (ACEL) in the reading, writing, listening & talking and numeracy ‘organisers’.
The statistics, based on teacher judgement, report on the percentage of school pupils in Primary 1 (P1), Primary 4 (P4), Primary 7 (P7) and Secondary 3 (S3) who have achieved the expected CfE Levels relevant to their stage. The results show:
For P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined, more than seven in ten pupils (73 per cent) achieved the expected CfE Level for literacy in 2022/23. This is the highest figure on record and compares to 71 per cent in 2021/22, and to 72 per cent in 2018/19, the last year before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In numeracy, four-fifths (80 per cent) of primary school pupils (P1, P4 and P7 combined) achieved the expected CfE levels in 2022/23. This is again higher than in any previous year and compares to 78 per cent in 2021/22 and to 79 per cent in 2018/19.
Around nine out of ten S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better in each organiser in 2022/23. For literacy, 88 per cent of S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better whilst for numeracy 90 per cent achieved this level. In each case this was higher than in 2021/22. Compared to 2018/19 the proportions were the same or slightly lower.
The statistics also provide information on the gap in attainment between pupils from the most and least deprived areas of Scotland:
For both literacy and numeracy the gap between the proportion of primary pupils (P1, P4 and P7 combined) from the most and least deprived areas who achieved the expected level narrowed in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22. For literacy the gap of 20.5 percentage points was the narrowest on record whilst for numeracy the gap of 17 percentage points remained slightly wider than in both 2017/18 and 2018/19.
For S3 pupils the attainment gap in literacy at Third Level or better narrowed from 16.3 percentage points in 2021/22 to 13.7 percentage points in 2022/23. This is similar to the level seen in 2018/19. For numeracy the gap reduced to 13.6 percentage points in 2022/23 from 15.0 percentage points in 2021/22 – again the 2022/23 figure is similar to the level seen in 2018/19″
(continues)
The figures released today were produced by professionally independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
With this 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67691246
“More than one in four Scottish state prsimary pupils are still not achieving the literacy levels expected of them, their teachers’ assessments show.
One in five pupils are not reaching the numeracy levels expected by their teachers either.
However, Scottish government Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth insisted there was a “clear rise in standards”.”
(continues)
The latest Scottish government report is based on Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data in reading, writing, listening and talking, and numeracy.
Teachers use their own judgement to mark the percentage of school pupils in Primary 1 (P1), Primary 4 (P4), Primary 7 (P7) and Secondary 3 (S3) who have achieved the expected levels for their stage of learning.
Children can start learning at these levels at different ages, decided by the school depending on “individual needs and aptitudes”.
There are no formal test or exams to assess pupils’ attainment, but teachers have a list of “Experiences and Outcomes” which they use to rate progress.
The report authors acknowledged that teachers’ judgements “can be subjective”, but insisted they used a “wide range of supporting guidance, moderation activity and quality assurance checks” to make the teachers’ assessments consistent and reliable.
The statistics suggested that many children were still not reaching expected levels of attainment. Across primary school, about 27% of pupils did not achieve the expected levels of literacy and 20% the expected level of numeracy.
The report also claimed the gap in attainment between primary school pupils in the most and least deprived areas narrowed to the lowest on record.
In 2022/23, the gap between primary pupils in literacy in the richest and poorest areas of Scotland was 20.5%, down from 21.3% the previous year and 20.7% in 2018/19.
🤔
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So how exactly does England cook the Pisa tests if not by cheating and only putting forward their best schools/pupils?
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