[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18644830

Bright 15-year-olds from the poorest homes are lagging more than two years behind their richer peers, a study suggests.

Dr John Jerrim of the Institute of Education analysed reading results of able teenagers in 23 countries.

His findings suggest the gap between bright rich and poor children in England and Scotland is twice that of most other countries.

He called for action to help clever children from poor homes succeed.

Analysis of international reading skills statistics from 2009 showed the gap between the highest scoring rich and poor students was two-and-a-half years in England and two-and-three-quarter years in Scotland.

These gaps are more than twice as wide as in Germany, Finland and Iceland where the richest are ahead by about a year.

Overall, England and Scotland had bigger skills gaps than 19 and 22 other nations respectively.

The biggest gaps were in New Zealand and the United States.

It seems that Britain will always be a divided society .....