Section:GDN 1N PaGe:5 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 19:39 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Tuesday 30 July 2019 The Guardian •
Samantha Morton 5
Actor’s plea over impact
of austerity on women
Page 7Cod crisis
North Sea stocks at
critically low levels
Page 14Attainment gap widens for
disadvantaged GCSE pupils
Sally Weale
Education correspondentProgress in closing the GCSE attain-
ment gap between disadvantaged
pupils and their wealthier classmates
has come to a standstill, signalling “a
major setback for social mobility ”,
according to a report.
The study by the Education Policy
Institute (EPI) found that the gap,
which ha d been gradually closing
since 2011, widened slightly last year,
with the most persistently disadvan-
taged pupils now almost two years
(22.6 months) behind their peers by
the time they fi nished their GCSEs.
After six years of progress, the EPI
said the government’s data show ed
that the average gap between disad-
vantaged and non- disadvantaged
students by the end of secondary
school went up from 17.9 months in
2017 to 18.1 months last year.
The report acknowledge d that
the changes were relatively modest,
but warn ed the change in directioncould mark a turning point that, if not
addressed, could lead to the progress
of recent years being reversed.
The study, based on attainment in
GCSE English language and maths,
found distinct geographical diff er-
ences with the disadvantage gap
larger – and growing – in parts of the
north of England. In Rotherham and
Blackpool poorer pupils lagged behind
their peers by more than two years on
average by the time they fi nished their
GCSEs. The smallest disadvantage
gaps were in London.
The report also look ed at attainment
by ethnic background and found that
black Caribbean pupils had slipped a
further 2.2 months behind their white
British peers since 2011. Pupils with
the most severe special educational
needs remained the furthest behind
and were now 40 months behind by
the end of secondary school.
The EPI’s executive chairman,
David Laws, said the report should be
“a wake-up call” for the prime min-
ister, Boris Johnson. “We are now
witnessing a major setback for socialmobility ... Educational inequality on
this scale is bad for both social mobility
and economic productivity.”
The gap also widened marginally
in the early years, with poorer pupils
in reception 4.5 months behind their
peers, up from 4.4 months in 2017.
However, primary schools were still
narrowing the gap : disadvantaged
pupils were 9.2 months behind their
wealthier class mates when they left ,
down from 9.5 months in 2017.The study, which is the EPI’s annual
report on the state of education in
England, compiled in partnership with
the Fair Education Alliance, acknowl-
edge d that overall pupil attainment
continued to rise, but point ed to a dra-
matic slowing down in the closure of
the disadvantage gap. It estimate d that
if the recent fi ve-year trend continue d
it would take 560 years to close the gap.
The report’s author, Jo Hutchinson,
said: “Rising average pupil attain-
ment has not resulted in more equal
outcomes for all .”
The school standards minister,
Nick Gibb, said the gap between
disadvantaged pupils and their peers
had narrowed considerably in pri-
mary and secondary schools since- “This government has deliv-
ered a range of reforms to ensure every
child, regardless of their background,
gets a high-quality education. ”
Labour and teaching unions blamed
the widening attainment gap on cuts to
school budgets and local services. The
Institute for Fiscal Studies has found
that spending per pupil in England’s
state schools fell by 8% in real terms
between 2009-10 and 2017-18.
The shadow education secretary,
Angela Rayner, said: “ Successive Tory
governments have cut school budg-
ets for the fi rst time in a generation
and slashed funding, from Sure Start
to further education, and now we are
seeing the consequences.”
I am Spartacus Anna Nikulina as Phrygia and Mikhail Lobukhin as the leader
of the slave rebellion in the Bolshoi Ballet’s production of Spartacus, which opened
at the Royal Opera House, London, yesterday and runs until Saturday 10 August.
Yuri Grigorovich’s muscular ballet about the Thracian fi ghter was fi rst performed in 1968.PHOTO: TRISTRAM
KENTON/GUARDIANIran releases
tape of patrol
boat warning
off UK frigate
as tanker seized
Dan Sabbagh
Defence and security editorIran’s Revolutionary Guards corps has
released an audio recording in which
one of its offi cers successfully tells a
British warship to back off during the
seizure of a UK-fl agged oil tanker in the
strait of Hormuz on 19 July.
The clip is of a radio exchange
between a Revolutionary Guards
patrol boat offi cer and HMS Mon-
trose as the Stena Impero was seized
while passing through the strategic
waterway.
The audio clip begins with an offi cer
directly addressing the Montrose using
a call sign: “British warship Foxtrot
236, this is Sepah navy patrol boat:
you are required not to interfere in
this issue. ”
A British-accented voice responds:
“This is British warship Foxtrot 236:
I am in vicinity of an internationally
recognised strait with a merchant
vessel in my vicinity conducting tran-
sit passage.”
The Iranian offi cer tells the Mon-
trose that the situation could escalate
if it trie s to intervene: “British warship
Foxtrot 236, this is Sepah navy patrol
boat: don’t put your life in danger.”
At the time, the frigate was too far
away to defend the tanker – 60 minutes
away, according to the UK Ministry of
Defence.
The release of the recording is an
attempt to demonstrate Iran’s naval
capabilities in the region a day after
HMS Duncan, a destroyer, arrived in
the Gulf to support the Montrose in
defending tankers passing through
the waterway.
Iran seized the Stena Impero after
the UK seizure of the Iranian-owned
Grace 1 off Gibraltar earlier this month.
The UK said it had acted to halt a ves-
sel believed to be carrying oil to Syria
in defi ance of EU sanctions aimed at
the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Last week Iran’s president, Has-
san Rouhani , indicated that his
country might be willing to contem-
plate a tanker swap but the idea was
ruled out by Britain’s new foreign
secretary, Dominic Raab, in an inter-
view yesterday.
Raab said the two seizures were not
equivalent. “Grace 1 was intercepted
because it was in breach of sanctions
and heading with oil for Syria and that
was the intelligence,” he said.
“We were absolutely lawful, entitled
to detain it in the way we did. The Stena
Impero was unlawfully detained.
This is not about some kind of barter.
This is about the international law
and the rules of the international legal
system being upheld and that is what
we will insist on.”Source: The Education Policy Institute annual reportThe GCSE attainment gap between
disadvantaged pupils and their
peers has come to a standstill
Size of gap in months for GCSE
English and maths2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 201819.718.918.
18.218.1 18.1 17.918.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS