The UK’s next Prime Minister must combat a huge and widening gap between North East pupils’ GCSE and A-level results and those in London, leaders have warned.
Figures on results day on Thursday showed that our region had the lowest percentage of pupils achieving top GCSE grades. 22.4% of entries from the North East achieved grade seven or above but the rate was 32.6% in top-performing London, a 10.2% disparity that has worsened compared to 2021 and the last pre-pandemic results in 2019.
The North East also had the smallest proportion of students achieving A* and A grades in last week’s A-level results, with 30.8% compared to 39.5% in the South East – a gap of 8.7%, up from 5.3% in 2019. Schools North East director Chris Zarraga, Fiona Spellman of education charity SHINE, and Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison have penned a joint letter to Tory leadership rivals Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, pleading with whoever succeeds Boris Johnson in 10 Downing Street to tackle the widening north-south education divide as a priority.
Read More: GCSE results day 2022 LIVE: Updates as students across the North East to get their results
Meanwhile, Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell accused the government of having “consistently neglected” bridging the educational gap between regions.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “North East pupils receiving their GCSE results have had to overcome huge challenges in the last few years, and should be hugely proud of all they’ve achieved. It is worrying, however, to see the continued gap in attainment between the North East and other regions. Despite all the rhetoric around levelling up, the North East has continued to experience by far the steepest increase in child poverty on this Government’s watch, and we know that has a huge impact on attainment at school.
“Learning lost due to COVID-19, and the Government’s completely inadequate education recovery package, have only made things worse. We urgently need to see the Government focus on reducing educational disadvantage by more effectively targeting funding and developing a strategy to tackle child poverty, something Conservative-led governments of the last 12 years have consistently neglected.”
Mr Zarraga, Ms Spellman and Mr Murison warned in their letter that “regional disparities in attainment are getting worse, not better” and that there are deep concerns about the “lasting impact this has on our economy and our ability to bring opportunity to young people from all backgrounds”. Mr Murison said: "Education is perhaps the single biggest factor to raising productivity and there is deep concern among the business community that the likely next Prime Minister is focusing on tax cuts rather than developing a proper plan for addressing these issues.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said the government had a range of measures to help level up education across England, including targeted support both for individual pupils who fall behind and whole areas of the country where standards are weakest”.
They added: “This is alongside £5 billion to help young people to recover from the impact of the pandemic, including £1.5 billion for tutoring programmes. Pupil Premium funding is also increasing to more than £2.6 billion in 2022/23, whilst an additional £1 billion is allowing us to extend the Recovery Premium for the next two academic years – funding which schools can use to offer targeted academic and emotional support to disadvantaged pupils.”
Read More:
- 'We are still standing' – Proud Ukrainians mark independence day as Newcastle shows solidarity
- Fallen tree finally removed from Gosforth park almost seven months after collapsing in Storm Malik
- £130m lifeline to stave off bus route cuts is a 'sticking plaster', North East council leader warns
- Grainger Market restoration hit by yet another setback with works to drag on for 'a number of weeks'
- Newcastle Caribbean restaurant's promise to neighbours who feared return of Happy Chip 'horror' years
