England’s sducation system ‘not set up to serve white working-class children’, major report finds
An independent investigation concluded that the education system was “not set up to serve white working-class children and their families.”
The Independent Inquiry into the Educational Outcomes of Working Class Whites also identified once-in-a-generation reforms are needed to tackle why such children are the largest demographic group with the lowest performance in England’s school system.
It was opened last summer by the multi-academy Star Academies foundation and is supported by the Ministry of Education.
Inquiry co-chairs Baroness Estelle Morris and Sir Hamid Patel said the problems identified in the report “cannot be explained by low ambition or lack of effort” and “cannot be solved by schools alone”.
Thousands of young people and their parents, as well as hundreds of teachers, were interviewed for the investigation.
It also analyzed education data on white working-class students, looking at 1.25 million young people in England who are white British and receive free school meals.
The report found that by 2025, just 36 per cent of white British students on free school meals will achieve Grade 4 or above at English and Maths GCSE, compared to 72 per cent of students not on free school meals. He calls this inequality “the disadvantageous gap of the white working class.”
Among its findings, the research determined that white working-class communities and the education system have different perspectives on how each defines success and the purpose of education.
The education system generally emphasizes academic progression to higher education, although many families place greater emphasis on the social experience of school and call for greater emphasis on vocational options such as apprenticeships for students.
In its 24 recommendations, the inquiry calls for more support in the early years, improved mental health support and restrictions on smartphone use in schools.
It also says improvements are needed in how the system defines and prioritizes white working-class educational outcomes, calls for an extension of 30 hours of free childcare to all disadvantaged families who are not currently eligible, and also calls for a major expansion of apprenticeship opportunities in white working-class communities.
Addressing these issues “will require many years of sustained national effort”, Baroness Morris and Sir Hamid said.
They said: “The challenge set out in this report is significant, but so is the opportunity.
“Every child in this country deserves to feel that education is for them, that their future matters, and that success is attainable no matter where they come from.”
One headteacher said there was a disconnect between what the education system could offer all children from working-class backgrounds and that the system was “too focused on academically based outcomes”.
Amy Sparkes, headteacher of Ward Jackson Church of England Primary School in Hartlepool, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that there were many parents who felt the school was not giving their children what they needed: “I’m really pleased that the report says it’s not a lack of ambition from parents and pupils, because it’s not. There’s definitely a disconnect between what the education system, not individual schools, but what the education system can offer all working-class children.”
“There is certainly too much focus on academically based outcomes and we are not making enough progress in getting back to what school was originally designed to be, which is to be a truly integral part of the rich fabric of a child’s life, not a nine-to-five job or just a place where they come to learn.”
When I told him that some people might say that passing exams was vital because working-class white children were on average half as likely as their peers in other groups to pass maths and English GCSEs, which are considered the absolute essential requirement for getting into work, he said: “So when did it become the absolute basis for getting into the workplace?
“I really think we’ve gone too far in that direction as a society, and by the time these kids get to GCSE age, they’ve lost touch with a system that is not welcoming, that doesn’t welcome them where they are, that expects them to move into the system, which is not really what education should be about.”
