Disadvantaged children in the north of England achieve GCSE grades that are significantly worse than their counterparts in London, according to a report into education and skills in the region.
The study by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) found that too many children in the north were falling behind youngsters in other parts of the UK, leading to a serious skills shortage for employers.
Provisional results for 2017 show that northern 16-year-olds receiving free school meals achieved an average grade score of 39.9, which was 6.5 points below their peers in London and 1.3 points below those in England as a whole.
According to a spokesperson from the NPP, under the old system the figures might have equated to, for example, a northern 16-year-old receiving 6 B-grades and 3 Cs at GCSE, where a pupil of the equivalent level in London would receive 9 Bs.
The NPP was launched by the former chancellor George Osborne in 2016. Among its recommendations is a call for the government to increase education funding for disadvantaged areas across the north by an initial £300m to ensure “every child is school ready by age five”.
The thinktank’s education and skills group, chaired by Manchester airport’s acting managing director, Collette Roche, also called on businesses to act as mentors to at least the same number of young people as they have employees.
They proposed that adult education funding be devolved to the new metro mayors, a position introduced by Osborne in government as part of his Northern Powerhouse devolution project.
The report also suggests that funding currently available through the free schools budget be geared to rebuilding dilapidated schools. Disproportionately few free schools have been established in the north of England, with only nine in the north-east, compared with 123 in London.
The report points to the success of the London Challenge, a school improvement programme launched by the last Labour government, which has been credited with significantly improving results at state schools in the capital.
In Osborne’s foreword to the report he said education was “perhaps the greatest challenge we face in the north”, adding: “In all the work we have done consulting with businesses in the north, poor skills and inadequate training come across consistently as the major issues.
“As our report documents, the facts show educational attainment in the north of England lags behind the south. Compared with London pupils, pupils in the north make a third of a grade less progress overall at sixteen and almost half a grade less in mathematics on average – one in four of them at secondary schools judged by Ofsted as inadequate or requiring improvement. Too many children in the north aren’t getting the education they need or deserve.
“The potential is there. I’ve seen it in my own lifetime with the way schooling in London, once among the worst in the country, is now among the best because of concerted reform, investment and private-sector involvement.”
Lord O’Neill, vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse partnership, said: “For the Northern Powerhouse to succeed and deliver a north that pulls its weight in economic terms the first things we have to sort out are education and skills. Sorting out schools in the Northern Powerhouse should be at the top of the new education secretary’s in-tray, and we will be working closely with government to implement our recommendations.”
