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Britain
UK 'one of worst countries for social mobility'
2007-06-26
Could also go in WOT Background. Obstacles to social mobility mean immigrants do not assimilate. Pretty soon the immigrants/their kids and and native born workers grow resentful of each other. One turns to extremism in the Old Culture, the other turns to historical European extremism.
Working-class children in Britain are less likely to climb the social ladder than in any other developed nation, a report showed yesterday.

Children born in the 1950s had a greater chance of escaping the cycle of deprivation than those born in recent years
Youngsters from poor homes are being condemned to a life of poverty as they fail to reach university or get a well-paid job, said the study by the Sutton Trust, which helps underprivileged children. Researchers disclosed that children born in the 1950s had a greater chance of escaping the cycle of deprivation than those born in recent years.

White working class boys are becoming an unemployable underclass as they perform worse at school than any other racial group.
Their report comes days after it emerged that white working class boys were becoming an unemployable underclass as they performed worse at school than any other racial group.

The latest findings will be seen as a criticism of the Government's education reforms.

Sir Peter Lampl, the chairman of the Sutton Trust, said that, despite 10 years of Labour government, the best schools remained "socially selective", with only middle-class children able to gain a place.

He called for grammar schools to admit more children from deprived backgrounds and the return of a scheme - scrapped by Labour - to give poor pupils subsidised places at private schools. He also called for more investment in "universal, high-quality early years provision and improving our under-performing state schools".

The researchers found that children born in 1958 were more likely to earn a better wage than their parents, compared to children born in 1970. Children born after 1970 had no subsequent improvement in social mobility.

Prof Steve Machin, from the London School of Economics, which carried out the Sutton Trust study, said: "We had a very big expansion of the higher education system in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but contrary to many people's expectations this actually reinforced social immobility."

In a further development, researchers compared the link between parents' education and test scores for young children in 1975 and 2003. Children from poor homes were just as likely to under-perform now as 30 years ago.

Furthermore, the association between adults' education and that of their children was stronger in Britain than in other developed nations.

The report said: "Early indications are that the decline in social mobility for those growing up between the 1970s and 1980s reflects a strong episode of worsening social mobility that was not seen before or since. The trend of worsening has stopped, but the UK remains very low in the developed world rankings."

Sir Peter called yesterday for the formation of a cross-party commission to examine the reason for poor children's educational failure.
Education matters, of course, but so does social and economic policy. Sir Peter, being a member of the Labour party, seems not to understand the link.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, backed the suggestion but again ruled out the possibility of more grammar school places, saying that more privately sponsored city academies should be built.

"We have got to get more good school places otherwise all we're doing is trying to find a different way of dividing up the cake," he said.
How about policies that encourage a bigger cake?

Jim Knight, the schools minister, said: "While we continue to see a flow of negative speculation about the current state of education, the facts tell a different story. Pupils achieved the highest ever GCSE results for English and maths - meaning 62,000 more left school in 2006 equipped with the basics than in 1997."

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Posted by: Shieldwolf   2007-06-26 20:11  

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