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Spare a thought for children who have odds stacked against them - 20th of Aug, 2008

A child who is born into a poor family will be at an educational disadvantage before they have even learnt to say the word ‘school’.

At just 22 months, a child from a disadvantaged background begins to fall behind children from more comfortable backgrounds. And then everything which happens in 13 years of education widens rather than bridges that gulf.

So here in the UK, the fifth richest country, we have three million children likely to be locked into a cycle of poverty they can’t escape and will pass down through the generations.

As youngsters across the country celebrate their GCSE success this week, spare a thought for those children who, regardless of ability, had the odds stacked against them. Reflect on the reality that children with measurably higher IQs will fall behind less bright children simply because of the poverty of their upbringing.

By the age of six a less able child from a rich family is likely to have overtaken a more able child born into a poor family. As a teenager the gap between a poor child’s ability and a more wealthy child’s is even wider. By the time GCSEs come around, some of our poorest children, those receiving free school meals, are half as likely to obtain the vital five GCSEs as other children. Children in care, those whose only crime has been to be born to parents who cannot or will not look after them properly, are five times less likely to get those GCSEs.

So, is it any wonder that 44 per cent of young people from the richest fifth of the population go on to university, compared to 10 per cent of those from the fifth of the population living in the poorest households.

It is because of this immoral social injustice that more than 130 organisations, including children’s charities, trade unions and faith groups, will challenge the Government to Keep The Promise it made to end child poverty in the UK through the biggest ever rally of its kind. Trafalgar Square, on Saturday, October 4, will be full of families, young people and children determined to demonstrate that the economic, but most of all the moral case, for reducing this educational lottery is one to which the Government must respond.

This is a once-in-a-generation chance to make a positive change to the lives of millions of children and we are looking for backing from people across the nation.

It’s vital that there is a huge show of the strength of feeling for change; an end to child poverty and a more just society.

Martin Narey Campaign To End Child Poverty chairman and Barnardo’s chief executive