How can we keep complaining about the persistence and growth of inequalities in British society if we maintain a school system that works precisely in the opposite direction, by making children's learning dependent on the support they can receive outside of school? How much longer are we going to tolerate this?
School grades 'linked to where you live' (BBC News)
Academic research has also revealed this in the context of a wider project called "Paired Peers". See the last of the Key Findings:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/spais/research/paired-peers/keyfinding/
This is elaborated upon with these further quotes from the study:
"Going to uni [is] seen as 'normal' for most middle class students, while for working class it generally requires more effort and planning"
"Working class parents are often unable to provide help and information on how to get into HE [...]"
These facts may be understandable and are certainly true, but why is the education system not correcting for it?
How can a 21st century society tolerate this state of affairs? Does the UK not realise that class (and gender) issues and rhetoric in education are almost nonexistent in the rest of 1st world, while here it is still one of the main problems?
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