Sean Coughlan quoted Sir Peter Lampl in a BBC News report on student GCSE subject choices.

Pupils in some parts of England are unlikely to take exams that could be vital to their job prospects – such as sciences and languages – due to a subject “desert”, a study has found.

The Open Public Services Network examined GCSE statistics from 2013 and found in some authorities a third of schools did not offer triple science.

There are concerns limited subject choices could harm social mobility.

The government said thousands more pupils were now taking core subjects.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust education charity, said these were “very worrying findings” and further evidence of the “bleak correlation between educational opportunities and geography”.

……

Sir Peter Lampl said: “One important reason why bright children from low and middle income pupils miss out on the best universities is that they don’t take the right subjects at school. It is vital that teachers give the right advice so that young people know what subjects they need to take.

“These new findings highlight even more the bleak correlation between educational opportunities and geography. If we are really committed to ensuring that all young people have access to a good education, we need to improve the quality of schools, particularly in the north and coastal areas.”

Read the full report here.

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