'Far too many' white working class kids don't get results they need says Bridget Phillipson
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson last night(SUN) vowed to tackle the "thorny" challenge of British white working-class young people falling behind their classmates.
The Labour frontbencher said it is a "national disgrace" that too many young people are "written off". Speaking ahead of A-level results day on Thursday, Ms Phillipson said her focus will be turning around the "stark" attainment gap and outcomes between white working-class children and their peers.
Data shows fewer than a fifth (18.6%) of white British pupils eligible for free school meals achieved at least a grade 5 - which is considered a "strong pass" - in their English and maths GCSEs. This compares to 45.9% of all state school pupils in England, according to the Department for Education (DfE). It comes after Gordon Brown blasts the return of 'poverty of 60 years ago' as he makes one big demand.
The Education Secretary said: "(It) is a national disgrace that so many young people are written off and don't get what they need to achieve and thrive." She added: "Far too many young people, particularly white working-class British students, don't get the exam results that they need at GCSE or A-level to allow them to continue onto university."
Ms Phillipson said a white paper in the Autumn will spell out an "ambitious vision" to tackle the "general challenge" young people face. She said the Government recognises that there is "still more to do" to tackle some of the disparities young people experience.
"I do want all students to be able to get the full benefits of their time at university, to be able to take up internships, study trips (and) other work experience opportunities," she said.
"I don't want students from less well-off backgrounds to be deterred from doing that because of having to take on more hours of paid work." When asked if the Government is considering bringing back maintenance grants in England to support poorer students facing cost pressures, Ms Phillipson said: "We're looking at all of the options in terms of how we can support students to both get to university but also to thrive while they're at university."
She added that universities have responsibilities "to make sure students from less well-off backgrounds are given the support that they need" to get to university and to complete their studies.
"There's still a big challenge there in terms of some of the unacceptably high dropout rates that we see for some students," the Education Secretary said. Last year, the Government announced that undergraduate tuition fees in England, which have been frozen at £9,250 since 2017, will rise to £9,535 for the 2025-26 academic year.
It also announced that maintenance loans will increase in line with inflation in the 2025-26 academic year to help students with their living costs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
7 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Outrageous! Fury at threat to increase rail fares by 5.5%
A potential 5.5 per cent rise in England's train fares next year has been described by public transport groups as 'outrageous'. July's Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation – which is often used to determine increases in the cost of train travel – will be announced on Wednesday. The Government has not confirmed how it will determine the cap in regulated fare rises for 2026, but this year's 4.6 per cent hike was one percentage point above RPI in July 2024. Banking group Investec has forecast this year's July RPI figure will be 4.5 per cent, which means fares could jump by 5.5 per cent. Bruce Williamson of pressure group Railfuture said 'it would be outrageous' if fares rose by that much. He added: 'What would be the justification for jacking up fares above inflation? There isn't any. 'It's ripping off the customer, driving people off the trains and on to our congested road network, which is in no one's interest.' Mr Williamson said that he would support the Government marking its nationalisation of train operators by freezing fares. He continued: 'One would hope that there would be some efficiency savings and economies of scale that you get from having a more integrated railway. 'But I strongly suspect that if there are any savings to be had, they'd be swallowed up by the Treasury and not passed back to passengers, which I think is wrong.' Ben Plowden, chief executive of the lobby group Campaign for Better Transport, said: 'Rising fares are not just burdening passengers, they are putting people off rail travel. 'Our survey found that 71 per cent of people would be more likely to take the train if fares were cheaper.' Mr Plowden added that Great British Railways – an upcoming public sector body that will oversee the UK's train operations – 'must take the opportunity to reform fares and make rail travel more affordable' because 'public support for nationalisation plummets if fares continue to rise'. About 45 per cent of fares on the country's railways are regulated by either the Westminster Parliament or the Scottish and Welsh governments. They include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities. The Department for Transport (DfT) said there will be an update on changes to regulated fares later this year. A DfT spokesman said: 'The Transport Secretary [Heidi Alexander] has made clear her number one priority is getting the railways back to a place where people can rely on them. 'No decisions have been made on next year's rail fares but our aim is that prices balance affordability for both passengers and taxpayers.'
Times
21 minutes ago
- Times
Rachel Reeves to cut ‘bats and newts' in boost to developers
Rachel Reeves is preparing to strip back environmental protections in an effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects. The chancellor is considering reforms that would make it far harder for concerns about nature to stop development, which she insists is crucial to restoring growth and improving living standards. The Treasury has begun preparing for another planning reform bill and is thinking about tearing up key parts of European environmental rules that developers say are making it harder to build key projects. Labour ministers have repeatedly insisted that their current planning overhaul will not come at the expense of nature, promising a 'win-win' system where developers will pay to offset environmental damage. But Reeves is understood to believe that the government must go significantly further, after expressing frustration that the interests of 'bats and newts' are being allowed to stymie critical infrastructure. She has tasked officials with looking at much more contentious reforms, which are likely to provoke a furious backlash from environmentalists and cause unease for some Labour MPs. A smaller, UK-only list of protected species is being planned, which would place less weight on wildlife — including types of newt — that is rare elsewhere in Europe but more common in Britain. Developers would also no longer have to prove that projects would have no impact on protected natural sites, under plans that would abolish the 'precautionary principle' enshrined in European rules. Instead, a new test would look at risks and benefits of potential projects. Further curbs to judicial review are also being considered by Reeves to stop key projects being delayed by legal challenges from environmentalists. No decisions have been made, but work is underway and Treasury sources acknowledged there was a growing belief that the government needed to go further, as Reeves says she wants to make boosting Britain's sluggish productivity the centrepiece of her autumn budget. She argued this week that building more infrastructure such as roads and railways were crucial to this aim. A Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently going through parliament attempts to encourage development through a 'nature restoration fund' through which developers will be allowed to press ahead with projects by setting up schemes elsewhere to offset their environmental impact. • The grid is struggling — and our green future hangs in the balance But the plan has been criticised by environmental groups while also attracting scepticism from some developers, who fear it will not work in practice and do little to speed up building. Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, who stood down as energy minister in May, is urging his former colleagues to go further to achieve Labour's promise of 150 major infrastructure projects. 'While I think the planning bill will work for housing, I don't think it is sufficiently focused on the major infrastructure projects, so it is encouraging that the Treasury is going to have another look at whether we've really got this right,' he said. 'The government has to face up to the tensions in the Habitat Regulations which are making it hard to build essential infrastructure and the reality is that at some point someone needs to make a hard decision and say 'on some things, you just have to press ahead'.' The rules, which incorporate the EU Habitats Directive into British law, ban killing of hundreds of species, including types of bats, news, voles, snails, spiders, insects and woodlice. Developers must prove there is no risk to protected sites and species before being allowed to go ahead with projects, under rules which critics say impose an 'impossibly high standard' on vital projects. Reeves is increasingly sympathetic to such criticism, after repeatedly hitting out at 'ridiculous' environmental protections. She said last month that she cared 'more about the young family getting on the housing ladder than I do about protecting some snails', after a speech in January in which she said developers should be able to 'focus on getting things built, and stop worrying about bats and newts'. Sir Keir Starmer has also expressed frustration with the ability of campaigners to delay projects through legal challenges, and is already introducing rules which limit judicial review to override the 'whims of nimbys'. Campaign groups and residents, who currently have three opportunities to apply for judicial review, which will be reduced to two, or one in cases deemed by a judge 'totally without merit'. Reeves is now considering allowing only one opportunity to bring any challenge. Some Labour MPs and peers want her to go further by using dedicated acts of parliament to prevent any legal challenge to specific named projects. The plans are at an early stage and are likely to cause tension with ministers in other departments who have pledged to protect the environment. Paul Miner, of the countryside charity CPRE, said targeting habitats regulations would 'take us backwards rather than forwards on nature recovery', adding: 'We urge the government to drop the worn-out 'builders versus blockers' narrative which wrongly frames climate and nature as being in conflict with economic growth.' Becky Pullinger, of the Wildlife Trusts, said maintaining environmental standards was 'essential if we are to achieve targets to protect and restore the natural world which is suffering huge declines, saying Reeves should abandon 'the myth that deregulation will lead to economic growth'. But Robbie Owen, head of infrastructure planning at Pinsent Masons, said: 'Ministers are finally realising that their rhetoric about reform doesn't match up up the reality of their bill. We have been saying to ministers and officials all year that the bill needs to go further and it seems that message has finally been heard.'
Sky News
34 minutes ago
- Sky News
How a chaotic 24 hours unfolded ahead of Trump and Zelenskyy's crunch White House talks
If there's one thing the past 24 hours has confirmed, it's that it's still Donald Trump's world, and we're all just living in it. In the aftermath of the Alaska meeting, the US president's deal-making skills came under question when he seemingly walked away empty-handed. But it was clear he had retained his ability to catch everyone off guard, as a meeting between him and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unexpectedly became a last-minute White House peace summit. 0:56 The invitation to European leaders drifted out, and within hours, the cast list had grown to include six more, as world leaders dropped everything to fit in with Mr Trump's unpredictable timetable. There were signs of disorganisation behind the scenes. When the British Prime Minister's spokesman was asked who the invite had come from - the White House or the Ukrainian president - they replied: "A bit of both." 2:09 Meanwhile, the meeting of the coalition of the willing - a Starmer and Macron-led group of Ukraine's European allies - had a nervous feel to it as members resolved to stand firm with Ukraine - even if it puts them at odds with the US. At times, it sounded like they were trying to convince themselves they could do it. And as all of this frantic diplomatic reaction played out, the man in the middle of it all headed to the golf course - calm at the centre of the diplomatic storm he created as his allies swirl around him.
