A big issue facing some of Englandâ??s weaker city economies is the large proportions of their residents that have very few or no formal qualifications.
Schools have an important part to play in addressing this issue. Centre for Cities’ recent report, Learning Curve, sponsored by ICAEW, found that current patterns of educational attainment appear to be re-enforcing rather than resolving skills deficits in some of our weakest cities.
The good news is that educational attainment in some of England’s weakest city economies has undergone a strong improvement in recent years. In 1997, just 35 percent of pupils attained five GCSEs or equivalent in any subject at grades A*-C. However, by 2010 this had increased to 75 percent. And in this process the educational attainment gap that existed between these cities and some of England’s most economically successful cities has all but disappeared.
But looking at attainment of five A*-C grades including Maths and English tells a very different story. The improvement in this measure of educational attainment was much more muted. And unlike attainment in all subjects, the gap between the strongest and weakest city economies persisted over the period. The result was that in 2010, just 45 percent of pupils gained 5 A*-C including Maths and English in these cities.
This has big implications for the future economic performance of our cities. Research shows that numeracy and literacy skills have become ever more important to businesses over the last fifteen years. But the poorer levels of educational attainment in Maths and English GCSE mean that the current skills deficits that exist in some of England’s weakest city economies are likely to be re-enforced.
To address this, the education system needs to place greater emphasis on Maths and English attainment when measuring school performance. The Government has taken some steps in the right direction by downgrading or removing the impact that vocational qualifications can have on school league table positions. But it must go further to incentivise schools to prioritise the qualifications required by both businesses and further education establishments alike.
To help pay for this schools should use the money they receive from the new Pupil Premium to fund extra Maths and English tuition. And any new Free Schools that are established in areas that have poor attainment of Maths and English should specialise in these subjects. The Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that Free Schools with a Maths specialism will be set up for 16-18 year olds. This is a welcome initiative. But our analysis shows that its post GCSE focus is too narrow – these schools should focus on younger ages too, particularly where Maths attainment is low.
Whilst there are many other factors that also affect educational attainment, these changes could help to break the cycle of poor skills attainment that some of our most poorly performing city economies face.