Andy Burnham has put regional inequality at the top of his agenda as prime minister, and nowhere is the need for doing so clearer than in education.
As England’s A-level results were published on Thursday morning, students across the country were pictured celebrating a bumper crop of results, with record rates of As and A*s.
Drill down into the detail, however, and the regional disparities are shocking, with the gap between London and the lowest performing areas of the country also at record levels.
Nearly a third of A-level candidates in the capital (۳۲.۷%) gained A*s and As, up ۶ percentage points on last year.
In the East Midlands, however, less than a quarter (۲۳.۱%) secured top grades, down from ۲۳.۸% in ۲۰۲۵, putting it level with the north-east, which increased its share of top grades marginally from ۲۲.۹% last year.
The results reveal the gap in A and A* grades between London and the north-east has grown to an alarming ۹.۶ percentage points, the largest since the pandemic and significantly higher than the ۲۰۱۹ pre-pandemic disparity of ۳.۹ points.
The gap in A* grades is up from ۲ percentage points in ۲۰۱۹ to ۵.۱ points in ۲۰۲۶. Experts are hoping the prime minister’s devolution plans to give regional areas the independence to adapt their approach to local conditions will help learners outside London.
Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at Exeter University, said: “Our capital has become an educational outlier while too many young people in the north-east, East Midlands and other parts of the country are growing up in very different worlds of opportunity.
“England is no longer defined by a simple north-south divide. It is increasingly a story of London pulling away from much of the country. Talent is spread evenly across the country; opportunity is not.”
The reasons for London’s runaway success are many. Tony Blair’s London Challenge started the process of transformation in the capital’s schools in ۲۰۰۳. Since then higher pay and cultural attractiveness have incentivised more teachers to join the capital’s schools, while ambitious migrant families have helped raise standards.
The Department for Education says its Rise teams (regional improvement for standards and excellence) are putting “a laser focus” on areas and schools where performance is weakest.
A proposal in the schools white paper to use household income to vary funding rates according to the level of disadvantage so that children with more entrenched disadvantage attract more funding has also been welcomed.
But the scale and persistence of the disparities laid bare in Thursday’s results clearly require significant intervention.
Chris Zarraga, the director of Schools North East, which represents ۱,۱۵۰ schools in the region, said schools in different parts of England were not operating on a level playing field.
“In the north-east, schools are working within communities facing entrenched disadvantage, intense pressure on public services, growing Send [special educational needs and disabilities] needs and very different access to opportunities and infrastructure.
“Increasingly, schools are being asked to compensate for all of those things. That does not mean accepting lower outcomes. These divides are not inevitable. But we will not close them simply by demanding more from schools while leaving the conditions around them unchanged. Government needs to treat this as a system challenge.”
He called for a long-term approach encompassing education, early years, health, Send, transport, skills and economic development, alongside high-quality academic and vocational pathways.
Elliot Major said an “ambitious, region-first approach” was needed. “Too many rural, coastal and post-industrial communities have been left with fewer educational and economic opportunities.
“The warning lights are flashing: persistent attainment gaps by background and place, historically high levels of school absence, and growing divides outside the school gates.
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said more funding was needed. “Schools do everything they can to respond to poverty but the pressures and strains on schools in areas of disadvantage must be addressed by Andy Burnham’s government, including all our schools and colleges to be properly funded.”
Zarraga said: “Results day should reflect young people’s potential and hard work, not the structural advantages or disadvantages of where they happen to grow up.”
