SDG 4: Quality education
What does the data show?
Data for SDG 4 has been limited by the impact of the pandemic on testing in schools. From the available data, many of the indicators have improved slightly since the last VLR, but the gap in educational performance between genders persists overall, with boys’ performances still not as good as girls’.
Bristol is below the regional and national average for some of its 2019 education indicators. In early years education, 69.6% of children under five achieved at least their expected levels of development, slightly below England’s average of 70.7%. At GCSE, 59.4% of Bristol pupils achieved a pass in both English and Maths, also below the national average (65.9%).
Significantly fewer young people than average go on to higher education in Bristol (31.6% compared to 42.2% in England). In South Bristol, in particular, participation is only 22.3%, which includes three of the five lowest-performing neighbourhoods in England.
However, the Bristol population with higher education degrees has increased since 2018, reaching 56.5% in 2021, above the British average of 43.6%. The number of adults who participated in education or training in the last four weeks fell from 17.4% in 2019 to 13.6% in 2020.
SDG 4: Quality education
Bristol is below the regional and national average for some of its 2019 education indicators.
The city has introduced various schemes to improve higher education participation from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. These include contextual offers, whereby applicants from lower-participation backgrounds are offered admission with up to two grades below standard requirements.
What Bristol is doing
The One City Plan recognises that developing children and young people is crucial to the city’s future. Bristol’s Belonging Strategy for Children and Young People 2021-2024 sets out how the city will recover from the pandemic and improve itself within a generation.
Collaboration
Under the strategy, Bristol City Council is collaborating with external partnerships and families to tackle the challenges that exist in education. Bristol’s SEND Local Offer is a website providing online information and support for citizens aged under 25 with special educational needs and disabilities. Bristol Education Partnership aims to enrich education in the city, and one of its key priorities is to overcome disadvantage by offering all students the chance to collaborate across partner schools to improve attainment and social skills.
Higher education opportunities
Bristol has introduced various schemes to improve higher education (HE) participation from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. These include contextual offers, whereby applicants from lower-participation backgrounds are offered admission with up to two grades below standard requirements.
Having been ranked lower than the national average among HE providers for state school intake, the University of Bristol is running subject-specific workshops at state schools within an hour’s drive of the city. Working with the 93% Club, the student society dedicated to improving the experience of state school students, which was founded by a University of Bristol student, the University has made progress on all measures, including increasing its state school intake from 64.7% in 2016 to 72.7% in 2020.