Technical education won’t be the only thing standing out to Andy Burnham and his ministers today, especially after their recent meeting in No 10 North.
The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in England has grown again.
In London, 32.7% of A-level grades were marked at A* or A. In the North East and the East Midlands, it was 23.1%.
That’s a 9.6 percentage point gap – up from 9.2 last year, when the North East alone was the lowest-performing region. It’s also the largest gap on record since the A* was introduced in 2010.
In fact, the gap between London and all other regions has widened since last year.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the regional gaps were driven by “persistent long-term disadvantage”.
Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, said schools in different parts of England were “not operating on a level playing field”.
He pointed out that the percentage of A* and A grades in the North East had grown, but London had “moved significantly further ahead”, adding: “There is a structural divide in the circumstances and opportunities surrounding them.”
But Myles McGinley, managing director of Cambridge OCR, said there were also “severe inequalities within the capital itself” between Richmond and Hounslow, for example, as well as between areas in the North East like Durham and Hartlepool.
