23rd December 2009 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Figures published on the 15th December 2009 by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) show that there is a trend for students eligible for free school meals (FSM) to achieve less in their GCSEs Alison Kershaw of the Press Association has reported.
The figures give a breakdown of GCSE results for gender, ethnicity and eligibility for FSM. They show that only 19.4% of British white boys eligible for FSM receive at least five A* - C grades in their GCSEs. This figure is dramatically lower than the 51% of British white boys not eligible for FSM who achieve at least five A* - C grades, a gap of 31.6%. This gap has widened from 29.8% in 2006.
Overall (for both boys and girls), the corresponding achievement gap is 27.5%, which has narrowed slightly from 28.1% in 2006. These differences in the gap could be seen as random fluctuations, or can be interpreted as girls reducing the gap, while boys are doing the opposite.
Eligibility for free school meals is generally seen as a guide to poverty, and this significant gap in GCSE achievement is a real worry for the prospects of the poorer students in the UK.