What should be done to improve social mobility?

giraffe

Do away with student loans and replace them with a graduate tax. Remove charitable status from independent schools. Install homework and holiday learning centres in every secondary.

squash balls

University fees are the biggest obstacle ... introduced by a Labour government moaning about the lack of social mobility!

burndenpark

Revoke inclusion and bring back a variation on special schools so that kids in the rougher schools don’t see 50 per cent of their lessons dominated by disruption.

emperor katan

The welfare system has made more people dependent on the state. Smaller handouts would be a start, or at least a cut in the amount people can claim.

mountain paddy

Improving social mobility is difficult - not least because of the inbuilt prejudice of many institutions and teachers (I include myself). But the biggest barriers are the low expectations of parents and pupils, mixed in with the way our system creates sink schools. I am ashamed to say there is no way a child of mine would have gone to the school I teach in. I would have slept in a tent to get them into one of the better schools in my area.

meanaveragejoe

If a child goes to an independent school and their parents did not, is that a positive indication of social mobility? Independent school numbers have risen since 2001, while those in state schools have fallen.