England’s pupils lag behind international peers, Centre Forum finds

According to a report by the Centre Forum, pupil attainment is improving but still falls shorts of the world’s leading countries in education, including Finland and Canada.

The Centre Forum study examined a wide range of factors surrounding education in England and noted that pupil attainment in primary and secondary schools in England is improving. However, it also maintained that more than 60 per cent of secondary and 40 per cent of primary pupils are failing to reach work-class standards on writing, literacy, maths and science.

The study predicts that following exam reforms, which include making more academic subjects mandatory and a new grades system, there will be a drop in those achieving a ‘good pass’ in subjects such as maths and english.

The study claimed that at the age of five, white British pupils are ahead of those from ethnic backgrounds, but fall behind by age 16. It found that by the time white British children began their GCSEs, they had slipped to 13th place behind children of Chinese, Indian, Asian and black African heritage.

Jo Hutchinson, Centre Forum's associate director for education, said: “We are talking about things such as parents attending parents' evenings at school, talking to their children about subject options, supervising homework, ensuring that the family eats together and has regular bedtimes.

"Those sorts of things appear to be more associated with this effect than pure aspirations. It's not just aspirations, but behaviours that support the aspirations.

"Most parents actually want their children to continue in education and be successful in education. What sometimes differs is the extent to which they have the knowledge and the tools and resources to help them to make that aspiration real."

Commenting on the findings, a Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We welcome this report which shows the stark choice we face in education today - either we prepare today's young people to compete with the best in the world, or we don't.

"That's why we've taken the decision to set the new GCSE 'good pass' in line with the average performance in high-performing countries such as Finland, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

"Every time we have raised the bar for schools and colleges they have risen to meet the challenge and we are confident that this is no exception.

"Over time we expect to see more pupils reach this new higher standard and the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers continuing to narrow."