In education, some social groups do less well than others on a number of measures. These include mastery of the ‘three Rs’, success in exams at the end of compulsory schooling and entry to higher education. This article focuses on the gap between the achievements of working-class children compared to their middleclass counterparts.
At one time the focus was on gender, with girls less likely than boys to do well at maths and science, less likely to choose ‘academic’ subjects at O-level/GCSE and less likely to progress to higher education. Girls now routinely outperform boys at age 5, age 16 and at degree level, though there are still differences in subject choices and in female recruitment into higher academic posts.
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