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poor

Gap between rich and poor primary school pupils wider than it was 50 years ago

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

The UK’s education class divide is wider now than it was half a century ago, new research has revealed, with children from poorer backgrounds already eight months behind their more privileged peers before starting school.

A study into international inequalities by the Sutton Trust found the UK falls behind Canada and Australia in terms of the literacy gap between pupils from the poorest and most affluent backgrounds.

Inequality levels are even larger in the US education system, where disadvantaged pupils are around one year behind before they even start primary school.

Five-year-olds in Canada and Australia with less educated parts fall behind their more advantaged peers by approximately six months at the point of starting school – a significantly smaller gap than in the UK.

While inequality has narrowed slightly in the past decade, there is still a noticeably larger gap between social groups than there was for children born 40 to 60 years ago, researchers warned.

The Sutton Trust said greater efforts were needed to reduce the disparity in the UK system, for instance by ensuring that well-trained staff are employed in Early Years settings.

Professor Jane Waldfogel, who led the research brief, said: “We have known for some time that achievement gaps in the US and UK are large. This international research puts them in context – and show that they can and should be smaller.”

By analysing information gleaned from international workshops and recent OECD data, researchers said they were able to compare international practices for better understanding of the best possible policies.

The charity has also called on the government improve access for disadvantaged children to the best early years education and care, ensuring children arrive at primary school on a more equal footing.

Sir Peter Lampl, Founder and Chairman of the Sutton Trust and Chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “There is a large difference between the reading attainment of the richest and poorest children in both the US and the UK. Tackling this disparity early on is critical to breaking the cycle of disadvantage and reducing inequality.

“We need to make sure that every child has access to high-quality early years education, so that rich and poor children arrive at school on a more equal footing.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We want all children to have the best start in life and latest results show the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their counterparts is narrowing but we know there is more to do. We are giving disadvantaged families, including looked after children, extra support through 15 hours of free childcare a week for disadvantaged two year olds, and the Early Years Pupil Premium, which is worth over £300 a year per child.

“There are already a record number of nurseries, pre-schools and childminders rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, the proportion of children reaching the expected learning standards continues to rise and more than 16,000 specialist early years graduates have been trained. To build on that success we are creating a workforce strategy to help attract, retain and develop the very best staff and investing more than ever in the sector – £6billion per year by 2020.”

[Source:- independent]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Setting creates ‘double disadvantage’ for poor pupils

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

The government is striving to close the attainment gap yet setting is rife in Scottish schools

Setting by ability is more likely in Scotland than abroad, despite warnings that it promotes social class differences

Pupils in Scottish secondaries are more likely to be grouped by ability than those in almost any other western country outside of the UK, new ﬁgures show, prompting one leading academic to warn that setting puts poorer pupils at a “double disadvantage”.

An inclusion expert has also warned that grouping by ability is now increasingly common in Scottish primary schools – just as the government is striving to “close the attainment gap” between the most and least well-off pupils.

Although Scotland has among the least academically selective school admissions systems in the world, last week’s Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results show that almost 92 per cent of Scottish secondaries grouped students by ability for “some subjects”. This compared with an average of 38 per cent across member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which runs Pisa.

Grouping by ability within classes for some subjects is also more likely to take place in Scotland – 85.7 per cent against an OECD average of 50.5 per cent.

Professor Becky Francis, director of University College London’s Institute of Education, said that grouping by ability caused the lowest attainers – who tended to come from disadvantaged backgrounds – to perform signiﬁcantly worse than if they were placed in mixed-ability classes. She also hit out at the “cultural assumption or myth” that it is harder to teach mixed ability.

Professor Francis told TESS: “Given that kids from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to be over-represented in these [lower] sets and streams, the disadvantage is doubled because they come into the system behind their more afﬂuent peers and then are subject to practices that we know will have a detrimental impact on their progress and educational outcomes.”

‘Detrimental impact’ of setting

Professor Sheila Riddell, an inclusion expert at the University of Edinburgh, said that setting was ﬁne for children in top groups, who would largely be from middle-class backgrounds, but had a “very detrimental effect” on lower groups, likely to be from poorer backgrounds.

“Setting has the effect of promoting social class differences rather than eroding them,” she said. “My impression is that primary schools in Scotland do a lot of setting by ability, placing children in different groups for reading and maths, which is going to depress the expectations of children from poorer backgrounds right from the start.”

Professor Francis, who is leading a major research project into the issue of setting involving 140 secondaries, said that the problem with grouping by ability is not just the impact on the conﬁdence and self-esteem of the pupils who ﬁnd themselves in the bottom classes.

Lower-ability classes, she said, tend to be assigned worse teachers, expectations tend to be low, courses are less demanding and there is often little movement between classes.

[Source:- tes]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Primary test agency ‘poor value’, says minister

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

protest outside the DfE

The government agency that sets primary schools tests in England has been “poor value for money” and lacking in “customer focus”, says the minister for school standards.

Nick Gibb’s comments follow an inquiry into the Standards and Testing Agency ordered after a series of problems and security breaches involving primary tests this year.

Claire Burton, the agency’s chief executive, accepted the report’s criticisms and promised “greater strategic oversight”.

Primary school tests faced a series of administrative problems this year – including an English test having to be cancelled after questions had been published in advance on a Department for Education website.

There were also accusations of a “rogue marker” as Sats test questions were claimed to have been leaked online a day before the test was taken.

‘Low morale’

This confusion had prompted an angry response from teachers’ unions, which had warned of a rushed and “chaotic” implementation of changes to primary tests.

Ministers had ordered an “urgent review” into the Standards and Testing Agency, part of the Department for Education, which runs primary school tests.

The findings, published on Wednesday, concluded that the agency was “broadly fit for purpose”.

But it highlighted problems, including a “lack of end-to-end strategy”, a “defensive” culture and “an ineffective assurance process”.

The staff of the agency were described as being “under enormous pressure” and “bruised by recent events and morale is low”. There is a high rate of vacancies.

The report says the agency has an administrative budget of £4m a year and looks after contracts worth £122m.

Mr Gibb says the review “identified clear issues around strategic leadership at the agency, poor value for money and a lack of customer focus”.

“Work is already under way to address those challenges and the STA has assured me it can, and will, make the changes required to prevent similar issues in future.”

Ms Burton, the agency’s chief executive, says: “We fully accept the findings of the review and have already taken steps to respond to the security breaches earlier this year, including restructuring the management team to ensure greater strategic oversight and improving internal processes.”

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Most grammar schools ‘not prioritising poor pupils’

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Pupil

Fewer than half of England’s grammar schools give poor pupils priority in allocating places, BBC research shows.

An analysis of the 163 grammar schools’ admissions policies found 90 do not take account of a child’s eligibility for free school meals.

Ministers want to ensure new selective schools take in more poor pupils.

The Grammar School Heads Association said grammars were at the forefront of giving admissions priority to disadvantaged pupils.

Grammar schools – state-funded schools that select pupils on the basis of ability – are facing increasing pressure to become more socially inclusive, amid government plans to increase the number of them.

Grammar schools: What are they?

What will new grammar schools look like?

Critics of the expansion plans have focused on the low number of pupils attending grammar schools who are eligible for free school meals – used as a traditional measure of poverty.

But the BBC’s analysis of admissions policies suggests the raw percentage of free school meals pupils in grammars does not capture where and how things are changing.

The most recently published admission policies for applications for 2017-18 reveal the extent to which change is under way.

Quotas

To gain a place at these academically selective schools, pupils have to pass a test, which varies from one area to another.

Once pupils have passed the test score threshold, schools, if oversubscribed, allocate places according to their admissions policies.

The analysis revealed that 21 grammar schools set aside places in quotas for pupils from lower income families.

A further 33 give some degree of priority in their oversubscription criteria, while nine grammar schools use it as a tie-breaker for allocating places to academically matched pupils.

The five grammar schools within the King Edward VI foundation in Birmingham go furthest, with a quota policy allocating up to 25% of places to pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding in order of their test scores.

This means children who have been entitled to free school meals, and therefore the pupil premium grant, in the past six years are considered before remaining places are awarded.

The policy has been in place for two years, so it will be some time before it fully alters the profile of the schools.

But not all quotas are as generous.

Urmston Grammar School, in Manchester, sets aside just three places out of an intake of 150 for pupils entitled to pupil premium.

The Skinners’ School in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, gives five places, out of 150, to pupils eligible for free school meals.

Prof Anna Vignoles, from the University of Cambridge, described the research as “insightful”.

‘Deprivation levels’

However, she added: “Whilst quotas or other measures might help, the fundamental problem in the system is the very large gap in achievement between free school meals pupils, and others, at the end of primary school.”

Recent research from the Education Policy Institute showed grammar school pupils travelled, on average, twice as far to get to school as those attending non-selective schools.

EPI’s director of education data and statistics, Jon Andrews, questioned whether quotas could really make a difference.

“Simply allowing more disadvantaged pupils to attend grammar schools will not create the systematic improvement needed for a world-class education system,” he said.

“A policy to introduce quotas would be self-defeating.”

The government is consulting on proposals for new grammar schools, including asking what proportion of children from lower income families they should admit.

Its consultation document says: “Selective schools also need to ensure the pupils they admit are representative of their local communities.”

At Wolverhampton Girls’ High School, 5.6% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals in the past six years, but the local authority average is 43%.

The school is located in a relatively deprived area, but has no criteria in its admissions policy to give priority to children from poorer households.

Admissions code

Many grammar schools are sited in more affluent areas, but the BBC analysis suggests no clear correlation between their admission policies and the level of deprivation within a few miles of their location.

Some schools use postcodes in their admission policies to more closely reflect the local social mix, and they all engage with their local primary schools to encourage applications.

The Grammar Schools Heads Association said it had pressed for the changes to the government’s admissions code, which came into force in 2014, and made it easier for maintained schools to give priority to poorer pupils.

In a statement, it said: “2017 is consequently the first opportunity for most schools to make such changes to their admissions policy and many grammar schools have done so, with more consulting to do so for 2018.”

The Department for Education said: “Our new approach is not about recreating the binary system of the past or maintaining the status quo.

“We want to look at how we can ensure new selective schools prioritise the admission of pupils from lower income households and support other local pupils in non-selective schools to help raise standards.”

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Grammar schools help poor claim is ‘tosh’ , says Ofsted chief Wilshaw

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Sir Michael Wilshaw

The idea that poor children will benefit from a return of grammar schools is “tosh” and “nonsense”, says the outgoing chief inspector of Ofsted.

Sir Michael Wilshaw said a return to selection at 11 years old would be a “profoundly retrograde step” that would lead to sliding standards.

He spoke out after reports that Prime Minister Theresa May favours changing the law so new grammars can open.

England’s Education Secretary Justine Greening is looking into the issue.

Supporters of grammar schools say that children from poor backgrounds are helped to make the most of their potential because entry to such schools is on the basis of raw ability.

But many argue that, in fact, the vast majority of those doing well in entrance tests are children whose parents have paid for them to be privately tutored outside school.

In a speech to London Councils’ education conference, Sir Michael praised the success of schools in the capital saying they had undergone an “amazing transformation” and lead the way in “narrowing the attainment gap between rich and poor”.

“It has maintained its status as the top performing region across all key stages when it comes to the performance of children eligible for free school meals,” he said.

The soaring success of London schools made “a mockery of the claim that opening up many grammar schools is the key to unlocking the potential of disadvantaged children and to boosting social mobility,” he said.

‘Pretty woeful’

“If grammar schools are the great answer, why aren’t there more in London?

“If they are such a good thing for poor children, then why are poor children here in the capital doing so much better than their counterparts in those parts of the country that operate selection?”

He said he appreciated that many grammar schools did a “fine job”, but added that their record of admitting children from non-middle class backgrounds was “pretty woeful”.

“The notion that the poor stand to benefit from the return of grammar schools strikes me as quite palpable tosh and nonsense – and is very clearly refuted by the London experience.”

He cited figures showing the under-representation of poor pupils in grammar schools.

In Bexley, he said grammar schools had 9% of pupils on free school meals, compared to 28% in non-selective schools.

In Sutton, where five out of 14 schools are grammars, the proportion is about 7% in grammar schools and 25% in non-selective schools.

In a BBC interview this weekend, Mrs May did not answer directly a question about whether she planned to bring back grammar schools.

But she said Ms Greening was looking at the issue of new grammar schools as well as other areas of education policy.

Labour banned new grammars in 1998 amid concerns they were dominated by middle-class pupils whose parents gave them a head-start with private tutoring.

England’s first “new” grammar for 50 years in Sevenoaks, Kent, was only approved last year as an “annexe” to an existing school using a loophole in the law.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner described Sir Michael’s comments as “an embarrassing rebuke” for the Conservatives.

“The Tories should be concentrating instead on raising standards in all schools and improving education for all our children, regardless of their backgrounds.

“They are failing to do so. But they want to return to a system in which children were branded as failures at the age of 11 and which only increased division in our society.

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Outstanding schools take too few poor pupils, study says

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Poor children in England are less likely to attend the best schools, even if they live nearby, suggests a new analysis of official figures.

The Schooldash blog compared the proportion of poor pupils in every school in England with the proportion in their local areas.

Poor pupils were notably under-represented at schools rated outstanding by Ofsted, says the report.

The government says all pupils deserve a world-class education.

The bloggers looked at the proportion of pupils on free school meals in every mainstream state school in England at both primary and secondary level.

They compared this with a measure of the proportion of children in income-deprived families in the population within 4km (2.5 miles) of secondary schools and 2km (1.2 miles) of primary schools.

‘Substantial bias’

They found wide variations between schools, between different types of school and between secondary and primary levels.

In particular, the intakes of grammar schools, single-sex secondaries, non-Christian faith schools and schools rated outstanding by Ofsted all fail to reflect the proportion of poorer children in the areas immediately outside their gates, the report found.

Outstanding schools showed “a substantial overall bias against poorer pupils”, the analysis suggested, while “inadequate” schools showed “a bias in the opposite direction”.

The study also looked at the intake of poorer pupils for different types of secondary school, finding:

little overall bias in council-run schools
converter academies, which have to be rated good or outstanding, took a smaller share of poorer pupils
sponsored academies, often struggling schools run by trusts, took an above-expected share of poorer pupils.

Primary schools, whatever their type, appear to be fairly balanced in terms of intake, the report found, except in the case of primary free schools which “appear to take less than their fair share of poor pupils”.

Unintended consequences

The figures do not “necessarily mean that anyone is deliberately conspiring to keep poorer children out”, say the authors.

They are more likely to be the unintended consequences of admissions policies or the result of different school choices between social groups, they believe.

“But until something changes it is hard to see how poorer kids will get a fair chance when the schools that are most open to them are largely the kinds that no-one else wants to attend,” the report concludes.

“The data presented here suggest that the ‘postcode lottery’ is far from the only effect keeping poorer children out of good schools, even those poorer children who do live close to a high-performing school are less likely to end up going there,” added Schooldash founder Timo Hannay.

In a speech in June, Ofsted’s outgoing chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said disadvantaged pupils in relatively wealthy areas were being let down, with the attainment gap between rich and poor wider than the national average in the home counties of Kent, Buckinghamshire and Surrey.

Education Minister Nick Gibb said the whole purpose of the government’s education reforms was to improve poor children’s chances.

“There are now over 1.4m more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010 and the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is narrowing at primary and secondary level.

“The pupil premium has resulted in over £11bn in funding provided to tackle educational inequality and we are committed to doing more to help the most disadvantaged pupils succeed,” said Mr Gibb.

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Careers advice: Downgrade schools with poor service, MPs urge

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Teacher and pupil in lab

Schools offering substandard careers advice should be downgraded in Ofsted inspections, MPs have said.

Poor careers provision in England’s schools was depriving young people of the chance to consider job options and harming the economy, the MPs said.

Ministers must incentivise improvement, the Commons Sub-Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy concluded.

But head teachers’ leaders said a “big stick” would not solve “severe problems” in the careers advice system.

The report says: “We recommend that Ofsted introduce a specific judgement on careers information advice and guidance for secondary schools, and set clear criteria for making these judgements.

“The Common Inspection Framework should be amended to make clear that a secondary school whose careers provision is judged as ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ cannot be judged as ‘outstanding’ overall.

“Likewise a secondary school should be unable to receive an overall judgement of ‘good’ if its carers provision is judged to be ‘inadequate’.”

‘Counterproductive’

The report, the first from the sub-committee, which was set up last year, also urges the government to untangle the “unruly” and “complex” web of organisations, service providers and websites overseeing and offering careers advice and put a single minister in charge.

It adds that a host of policy changes, initiatives and new bodies introduced in recent years have failed to make serious improvements in careers advice and “some have proved counterproductive”.

“Too many young people are leaving education without the tools to help them consider their future options or how their skills and experiences fit with opportunities in the job market,” says the MPs.

“This failure is exacerbating skills shortages and having a negative impact on the country’s productivity.”

They want better work experience for all young people and urge up-to-date local information be provided to schools and colleges from businesses through Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Neil Carmichael, who chairs the Education Committee, said it was “concerning that so many young people are being failed by the guidance they receive”.

“Careers advice should be a core part of a young persons schooling – but at the moment it is little more than a poorly thought out add-on,” he said.

Iain Wright, who chairs the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, said initiative after initiative on careers guidance had “rained down from government, creating a confusing and costly mess when what we really need is a clear picture”.The report says the imminent publication of the government’s new careers strategy would be a good opportunity to “finally get careers provision right”.

But Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was “disappointing that the committee had reached for the big stick of Ofsted”.

Severe problems in the existing careers system urgently needed sorting out and school budgets were frozen and under severe pressure, said Mr Trobe.

“We agree that high-quality careers advice is vital to young people and the economic future of the country, but it is pointless to introduce yet another accountability measure without first addressing these problems,” he said.

And Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the “blunt tool of inspection” was not an effective way to drive improvement in careers guidance.

Education and childcare minister Sam Gyimah said ministers were aware of huge variations in careers guidance.

Mr Gyimah promised the government’s careers strategy, to be published later this year, would “provide a roadmap” for improvement.

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

Vivo Y51L review: Great design but poor display

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

The market for mobile devices under the sub-Rs 12,000 bracket is on a constant rise. Considering the fact their innards are so powerful, they can even give their flagship counterparts a mid life crisis. The Vivo Y51L is another one of those trying to capitalise in the ever growing budget category. Apparently it’s the company’s first smartphone manufactured outside of China. In fact, it is assembled at its Greater Noida plant in India.

Currently priced at around Rs 11,000 on Amazon India, the device comes with a standard set of specifications you would expect from a budget smartphone. There are quite a few sub Rs 12,000 smartphones available that more or less take care of your usual requirements such as an elegant looking design, decent graphics for gaming and movies, good music experience and of course no hiccups while switching between apps. Lets see how many of the above parameters did the Vivo Y51L manage to pull-off.

Design

Out of the box, it feels like a pretty good looking device with rather unique design aesthetics. It flaunts a slim body with modulated metal strips running along the sides. The cut outs for the volume rockers and power button are done with absolute precision. The back of the phone gets a neat glossy plastic finish which adds to its overall appearance. The company done a good job when it comes to the smartphone’s design aesthetics, though feels a tad heavy in the hand probably because of the use metal on the edges.

Display

On the front is a 5-inch display which is apparently one of its glaring shortcomings. Its a 5-inch LCD display with a pretty sluggish 960x540p resolution, which makes reading and multimedia experience on the smartphone a bit flat and dull. It will probably suffice for casual users who are not really finicky about displays. Though at a price point where rivals like the Redmi Note 3 and LeEco 1S are offering Full HD displays or the Moto G Turbo which gets the standard HD display, the Vivo Y51L’s display is light years behind.

Performance

Coming to its processing power and multitasking performance, the smartphone performed really well during the time I spent with it. It did a fairly decent job at multitasking, even the gaming performance was pretty good. It could even play high-end games like Mortal Kombat X without any major lags or stutters that too without any heating issues, which is quite a rarity these days. Even the software performance is quite snappy featuring some rather unique design changes which can be a bit confusing initially. For instance, the drop down menu only displays the Notifications panel and not the Settings menu. Instead, you will have to slide upwards from the lower edge of the screen to access the settings panel. Though once you get used to it, it does offer some rather nifty features such as long screen shot, which allows you take the screenshot of the entire page and not just the portion visible on the screen, implying you can easily take a screen grab of your entire Twitter timeline in one go.

Camera

Coming on to the cameras, the 8-megapixel camera on the back is quite a hit and miss as the end result in well lit conditions turns out quite satisfactory for the most part. Though at times it seems the camera lacks consistency as images appear rather blurry, especially in low light conditions. However, the 5-megapixel camera on the front surprisingly turned out to be quite a delight as it is capable of belting out some pretty good selfies.

Battery and connectivity

The 2,350 mAh non removable battery also churns out a rather satisfactory performance for the everyday user, as it can easily fetch you over a day of moderate usage.

It also offers rather solid storage options such as OTG support, and comes with 16 GB of built-in storage expandable upto 128GB via microSD slot. In terms of connectivity, the VivoY51L comes with dual-SIM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G along with 4G LTE support.

To buy or not to buy

Barring the smartphone’s lame screen resolution, the Vivo Y51L offers a pretty decent all round performance and definitely score some points in terms of its unique design aesthetics. Though it still lags way behind the competition in the given price range. Especially from the likes of the Le Eco 1S and the Redmi Note 3 who feature more advanced innards and essentially offer a much better overall package at the same price point.

Hence, if you’re looking for a smartphone that’s easily available for purchase without the annoying flash sales model, the Vivo Y51L is a pretty decent buy, unless a good display is one of the core ingredient of your daily smartphone usage.

[Source:- Hindustantimes]

April 4, 2024 0 comment