School achievement gap between rich and poor students ‘has not narrowed in a century’

Children of less wealthy families face the same learning challenges as they did 1921, reports Lamiat Sabin

A child at a primary school in Yorkshire (Danny Lawson/PA) (Danny Lawson/PA)

The achievement gap between children of deprived and wealthy families remains as wide was it was a century ago, according to a new study.

Primary school children in the UK are as affected by their families’ socioeconomic background as they were in the early 1920s, researchers said.

The study, by the University of York, analysed data from 92,000 people. It revealed that the achievement gap between poor and richer children has remained the same from 1921 to 2011.