#CloseTheGap - Attainment vs Opportunity

When I speak about closing the gap, please do not misunderstand me. I am not an ardent supporter of the government’s rhetoric about the urgent need to implement measures over the summer of 2021 to close the gap in children’s attainment, which will inevitably have increased during the covid-19 lockdown. Our children are now in dire need of fresh air, freedom and friends and problems in attainment reflect an infinitely more complex issue. Hours of added extra-curricular tuition delivered by burned out teachers during the holidays will not rectify it. Particularly when deeply embedded issues around technological and social disadvantage remain. So what then is it that I campaign for as I champion #CloseTheGap and rally national support?

If I am not talking, somewhat controversially perhaps, about gaps in attainment, where are the most pressing gaps for our young people in education? If for a moment I may draw attention to the widely known analogy of judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid. Regardless of who we attribute the analogy too, or whether it is an immovable truth, by this standard, it is fair to surmise that a young person will live their life considering themselves stupid if measured by the same, inflexible academic yardstick. And therein lies the rub, as Shakespeare might have it. Where then does this leave our students for whom standardised testing and a strictly target driven curriculum simply does not meet their needs? And for those young people who cannot access the internet at home, who do not have a framework of support around them or fly under the radar due to unmet specific educational needs or mental health issues.

What I campaign for and make it my personal mission to promote, is that all young people have access to the same opportunities. The same standard of education and expertise. The same outstanding professionalism and creativity in their place of learning and an increasing flexibility in the provision of education they have access to. THAT is the gap I campaign to see close. Our current curriculum is too rigid, targeted and narrow, inherently marginalising swathes of highly capable young people and leading them to feel undervalued and frustrated. Moreover, I refer to closing the gap in how young people can access English in education and be given the skills TO succeed within the subject. The Centre for Social Justice recognise that “Lower qualifications depress earning potential and make unemployment more likely.” But the longer we marginalise the disadvantaged and fail to make provision for them, the longer we do them an inexcusable disservice and “deprive our country of considerable and diverse talent.” CSJ 2020