Can a system that fails 35% of all children really be considered a policy success?

The green bar shows the percentage of pupils in England eligible for free school meals who achieve a pass grade in GCSE English and Maths. The figure is 43%. For all other pupils the figure is 72%, as shown in the yellow bar. The difference, known as the “attainment gap,” is shown in the blue section next to the green. This has changed very little over recent years. The other blue sections show the 28% of all pupils, (in addition to the attainment gap), who fail to reach this basic standard. That's 35% of pupils in all. The data is from 2022-23.

Eligibility for free school meals, which is tightly controlled in England, is a reliable measure of child poverty. Nearly a quarter of pupils are eligible, and a quarter of all children are identified by the government as living in absolute poverty. That’s over two million children in both cases.

Research suggests that education is one of the most important predictors of a young person’s life chances. It affects, on average, not only their future income and paid work prospects, but also their physical and mental health, their chances of a criminal conviction and the quality of their lives in broader terms. This effect rolls forward through the generations, as better off families continue to prosper while the effects of deprivation are equally engrained.

This is the reality for a quarter of all children. Money is not an abstract concept to be spoken of in averages, or percentages, or fractions, because what matters to an individual child is the availability of enough actual money in their actual family. Only this actual money can ensure that they are properly housed, fed, clothed, equipped and supplied with sufficient opportunities to socialise with adults and other children, the basic human needs on which a good education is grounded.