The performance of white British pupils has declined compared to other ethnic groups since the pandemic – and some poor children are two years behind more affluent peers, a report has highlighted.
Higher-attaining ethnic groups generally “pulled further away” from white British classmates between 2019 and 2022.
And the analysis suggests the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in England in 2022 was wider than in 2019 – the year before the pandemic led to school closures, said the Education Policy Institute think tank.
There has been “a lack of progress” over the last decade in narrowing the attainment gap for children who are persistently disadvantaged – pupils who are eligible for free school meals for at least 80 percent of their school lives, said the report.
These pupils were 12.2 months behind their non-disadvantaged peers at the end of primary school and almost two years (22.7 months) behind by the end of secondary school in 2022. By the end of primary school, Chinese pupils were 10.7 months ahead of white British pupils and Indian pupils were 8.8 months ahead, the report suggests.
It adds that by the end of secondary school, Chinese pupils were a full two years ahead of white British pupils.
The think tank has called on the Department for Education to investigate the huge differences.
Emily Hunt, from the think tank, said: “Growing up in long-term poverty has a particularly profound impact on educational outcomes. There has been no progress in narrowing gaps for persistently disadvantaged pupils in the last decade.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is desperately dispiriting that not only has the attainment gap widened, but there has been no progress over the past decade.
“A good start would be to target increased funding to the most disadvantaged.”
