Half of teenagers who do not pass GCSE English and maths were not meeting expected levels in EYFS, study suggests
By Rachel Lawler
Half of children who did not secure a pass in GCSE English language and maths were identified as being 鈥榖ehind鈥 in the EYFS Profile, according to a new study by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Just over a fifth of children in the cohort studied were not meeting the expected levels of development in 鈥楥ommunication, Literacy and Language鈥 and 鈥楳aths Development鈥.
But after 11 years of schooling, just one in three of these children went on to achieve a grade 4 or higher in both GCSE English language and maths 鈥 this compares to three in every four children who were meeting the expected levels in the EYFS Profile.
"Forgotten fifth"
The researchers also looked at children who has been assessed as 鈥榙elayed鈥 in the Bracken school readiness assessment at age three. They found that 38% of these children did not meet the expected levels of development in the EYFS Profile, compared to 14% of those found to be 鈥榮chool ready鈥 at age three.
The government has previously announced plans to increase average GCSE grades in English and maths up to 5, from a current average of 4.5.
Professor Elliot Major commented: 鈥淭he forgotten fifth of pupils leaving school lacking basic English and maths skills is one of education鈥檚 biggest scandals. Our research lays bare the unravelling tragedy for the 100,000 teenagers who each year leave schools without basic skills.
鈥淕overnment attempts to address this challenge will fail without high quality support for children during the pre-school years and greater efforts to identify, diagnose and most importantly respond to children falling behind at early stages of schooling. We should also consider introducing a basic threshold qualification for functional literacy and numeracy skills that all school leavers would be expected to pass.鈥
Vital early years
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Alliance, said: "This research demonstrates exactly what our sector has been saying for many years now: if you want to improve children's outcomes, you need to start with the early years.
"Despite a wealth of research demonstrating just how vital the first five years of a child's life are for their long-term learning and development, early years provision continues to be treated as little more than 'childcare' needed to help parents work, rather than the vital education that it is.
"With government spending per child lower during the early years than in any other period of a child's education, it's clear that the government's has its priorities all wrong. We hope that this study will help ensure ministers finally recognise the critical value of our sector, and the need to invest in it accordingly."
Early findings shared
Early findings of the research, which was funded by the Monday Charitable Trust, have been shared with the government.
The working paper, The forgotten fifth: examining the early education trajectories of teenagers who fall below the expected standards in GCSE English language and maths examinations at age 16, will be presented by the research team at the British Educational Research Association鈥檚 annual conference next week