Educational inequalities have ‘barely changed’ over the last two decades and are likely to increase following the COVID-19 pandemic, financial experts warn.

New research into inequalities, carried out for the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) Deaton Review of Inequalities and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, has revealed that educational inequalities result in ‘substantial differences’ in life chances.

The research found that just 57% of English pupils eligible for free school meals reached a good level of development at the end of Reception in 2019, compared with 74% of their better-off peers.

It also found that only 40% of disadvantaged pupils go on to earn good GCSEs in English and maths versus 60% of the better-off students.

Imran Tahir, a research economist at IFS and an author of the report, said: ‘We can’t expect the education system to overcome all the differences between children from different family backgrounds. But the English system could do a lot better.

‘School funding has become less progressive over time, and the resource gap between the state sector and independent schools is widening. Teaching in more disadvantaged schools is less good: while virtually all schools serving the most affluent had “outstanding” or “good” teaching, nearly a quarter of schools serving the most disadvantaged had teaching that “requires improvement” or is “inadequate”.’

The research revealed that 10 years after GCSEs, over 70% of those who went to private school have graduated from university compared with just under half of those from the richest fifth of families at state schools and fewer than 20% of those from the poorest fifth of families.

‘Among pupils who are behind expectations at the end of primary school, fewer than one in ten goes on to earn good GCSEs in English and maths – meaning that we bake in failure from an early age. And the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic has moved us in the wrong direction, lowering attainment and widening inequalities,’ Mr Tahir continued.

‘If the Government is to meet its mission to have 90% of pupils attaining the expected level at the end of primary school, it needs to prioritise the education system and especially the disadvantaged pupils within it.’