In December 2023 the Education Policy Institute published a report summarising the current status and some future trends for education in England. They identified eleven facts, as follows:
- Fact 1: England performs well against international comparators.
- Fact 2: Around 40 per cent of the disadvantage gap at age 16 is already evident by age 5
- Fact 3: Quality early years education and care leads to better outcomes but, for the average family, costs can amount to a quarter of their income
- Fact 4: Today’s geographic attainment inequalities will become tomorrow’s disparities in earnings and quality of life
- Fact 5: While the overall population is set to increase, the number of children in the UK will fall by 1.5 million by 2040
- Fact 6: Many more children are missing school, with one-in-five pupils now persistently absent and vulnerable children amongst the worst affected
- Fact 7: Rising demand and an unresponsive funding system has meant that the school system is struggling to support some of our most vulnerable children
- Fact 8: Spending on education is above the OECD average, but schools and colleges have faced a funding squeeze that now looks set to continue
- Fact 9: The government is recruiting fewer than two-thirds of the secondary teachers it needs, and a third of teachers leave within five years
- Fact 10: England is home to world class universities, but challenges remain around financial sustainability
- Fact 11: Closing the gap between skill supply and employer demand could increase national productivity by 5 per cent
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