Five years ago Nick Clegg created a policy that would boost the education of children who belong to the poorest sector of the society. He hoped that with the policy in effect, the gap between the rich and poor will get closer. After five years and £8.7 billion later, experts deemed it as an utter failure.
Statistics have shown that despite the government's effort through Clegg's policy, the chasm is widening with little improvement to show for: students get GSCE grades A to C. According to education expert Alan Smithers, the growing gap challenges the popular assumption that the policy is doing well when, in fact, it has been disappointing and alarming. He added that the policy only did well at first but its effect was not sustained. Now, taxpayers' money is just going to waste on a policy that does not have any effect.
Recent Whitehall data seems to confirm what Smithers have said because it showed that the gap between rich and poor scores have widened by 1.6 percent. However, the Department of Education claimed that such comparisons are misleading. They further added that 'like-for-like comparisons should not be made over the years' because changes are being made which makes exams more rigorous and difficult.
They reasoned out that if all the grades are taken into consideration including those below the C mark, it will be very different. Putting this perspective at work, the Department of Education is establishing a new measure which they call as the 'gap index,' which showed that the gap has narrowed.
Smithers, who is also the head of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, disagreed saying the traditional method of measurement is more useful. Moreover, it is what employers and universities look for when hiring or admitting students. In closing, he said that whatever measures are used, there should be a significant change to show that the billions of pounds spent are actually making an impact.
