Educational Inequality

Unicef produced a detailed report card that presents an overview of inequalities in child well-being in 41 countries of the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It focuses on ‘bottom-end inequality’ – the gap between children at the bottom and those in the middle – and addresses the question ‘how far behind are children being allowed to fall?’ in income, education, health and life satisfaction.

With the gap between rich and poor at its highest level for some three decades in most OECD countries, there is now a renewed focus on questions surrounding inequality. While much political debate has centred on the growing income of the top 1 per cent, in many rich countries incomes below the median have grown less quickly than have those above the median.