On Thursday 12 August, GCSE results reached a record high. It was also the second year running that traditional exams had been cancelled due to coronavirus (Covid-19). This year, teachers determined the results by assessing their pupils on what they’d been taught during the pandemic.
Needless to say, high grades are great news for the students that achieve them. But just as this pandemic has further highlighted inequality in society, education is no exception. Because Thursday’s results showed pupils from poorer backgrounds are falling further behind those from wealthier ones. And while this difference can’t be expressly attributed to coronavirus, the gap in educational achievement between rich and poor pupils is widening.
Class Divide is a grassroots campaign group in Brighton and Hove on the south coast of England. And it’s only too aware of this division between rich and poor in education. Because it has been:
fighting to draw attention to the deeply injust educational attainment gap for young people from the communities of Whitehawk,…
