Free school meal pupils falling further behind their peers, report warns
A new report from the Education Policy Institute reveals that the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers has widened in England since the pandemic. The disparity is particularly significant in early years education and at the GCSE level.
Why it matters
This highlights a growing social inequality crisis in the UK education system that threatens long-term economic mobility for low-income children.
Image source, Getty By Hayley Clarke Education reporter Published 11 minutes ago The gap between how well pupils from better-off backgrounds perform at school compared with their classmates from lower-income households has widened, according to a new report.
Despite some improvements in the years since Covid, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) said the disadvantage gap had widened again in England and was still bigger "at every phase" of school than it was before the pandemic.
The difference was "particularly stark" in early education, the report said.
The Department for Education said it was working to close the disadvantage gap by delivering opportunities for every child, including expanding government-funded childcare and extending eligibility for free school meals.
The government had previously set itself a target to halve the disadvantage gap by the time the current generation of children finish secondary school.
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