Only 45 poor children make it into Oxbridge
ONLY a handful of children a year escape the poverty trap to get into Oxbridge, contrary to Labour’s claims that they are helping the poor to get a better education.
The latest figures show that only 45 youngsters who get free school meals – the Government’s measure of the worst off – make it to Oxford or Cambridge universities each year.
Meanwhile, one public boys’ school in London achieves an average of 82 Oxbridge admissions a year and an independent girls’ school gets the same number of Oxbridge entrants as the entire free school meals group.
Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary for Children, Schools and Families, said: “These figures show the true extent of Labour’s failure."
“The very poorest pupils have been let down by a school system that simply is not good enough. Standards are falling, discipline problems are rife and headteachers are increasingly being micromanaged by Whitehall."
“A Conservative government will give every child the kind of education that is currently only available to the well-off – safe classrooms, talented and specialist teachers, access to the best curriculum and exams and smaller schools where teachers know the children’s names.”
Research also revealed that only one per cent of FSM pupils get into a Russell Group university, the group that represents 20 of Britain’s leading universities. Non-FSM students are seven times more likely to go to university.
About half of all pupils at Westminster School in London go to Oxbridge, an average of 82 a year. St Paul’s Girls’ School produces the same number of Oxbridge entrants as the entire FSM cohort, a figure revealed in research by the Sutton Trust education think-tank.
Fewer teenagers from the most deprived neighbourhoods are going to university, according to a report by the University and College Union.
In the 20 poorest areas the number of adults with degrees fell in the past three years, despite a £2billion drive to widen access to higher education.
It was also found that more than a quarter of people in parts of the West Midlands, Merseyside, Glasgow and Nottingham are in the workplace with no qualifications at all.
The University and College Union, which represents academics and lecturers and carried out the study, said children’s chances of getting a decent education were closely linked to postcode.
It suggests middle-class teenagers have benefited the most from the expansion in the number of university places over the past 12 years.
Labour lets down the poorest children at every stage. Only 71 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals can read at the expected level by the age of seven, compared with 87.4 per cent of non-FSM pupils.
By the end of primary school, 53.3 per cent of FSM pupils reach the expected level in English and maths, compared with 75.5 per cent of non-FSM pupils.
By GCSE, 26.9 per cent of FSM pupils get 5 A*-C grades, compared to 54.4 per cent of non-FSM pupils. The trend continues to A-level with 3.7 per cent of FSM pupils gaining 3 or more As, compared with 9.5 per cent of non-FSM pupils.
