Initiative launched to tackle poor social mobility of young people in the South West
A University of Exeter professor of Social Mobility is leading a research group in suggesting solutions for the South West’s GCSE and primary school attainment gaps.
Statistics show that the South West performs worse than any other region on social mobility measures. “The South West is the most rural, most coastal, geographically largest and least populous of all English regions” Says Dr. Lee Elliot Major.
The project is “a call to action in light of how overlooked the South West peninsular is in national discussions.”
The scheme is one of the first of its kind. Governmental attention has been focused on social mobility issues in the North until now so the project is “a call to action in light of how overlooked the South West peninsular is in national discussions”.
Statistics from 2019 confirm Dr. Major’s worries with harrowing results showing that whilst 59 percent of disadvantaged pupils in inner London passed GCSE English and Maths, only 4o percent of those in the South West did.
Dr. Major and the team hope that their research will lead to the funding of new schemes tackling young people’s social mobility issues on a regional level.
Editor: Orla Mackinnon
