Poorer children who fall behind in reading at an early age earn around 20% an hour less in later life, according to a study commissioned by the Read On. Get On. campaign, which says poor-quality nursery provision is letting the most disadvantaged children down.
Campaigners say the quality of private nurseries – which make up 75% of England’s provision – is too variable and weakest in the most disadvantaged areas.
Half of England’s privately run nurseries do not employ a single graduate teacher, according to research by the group, which warns that this is contributing to literacy problems among children.
“On average, children from low-income families are nearly 12 months behind their better-off peers in vocabulary by the time they start school,” the report says. One in five children in England cannot read well by the time they leave primary school, while this figure rises to one in three among children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Dame Julia Cleverdon, the chair of the Read On. Get On. campaign, says all nurseries should have at least one early-years trained graduate. “By providing quality and qualified teaching in every nursery, we can ensure every child arrives at school with the building blocks in place to learn to read and succeed.”
Research conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies for the campaign group suggests that disadvantaged children who fall behind in reading earn far less in later life.
It used data from the British Cohort Study – which follows the lives of 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970 – to see how children have fared in later life. Individuals included in the survey sat a reading skills test aged 10, which researchers used to benchmark their literacy.
It found that, among poorer children, those who were the best readers at age 10 go on to earn 20% more per hour on average at age 40 than those with the weakest reading skills. This could be equivalent to an extra day’s wages each week: a 20% increase in hourly pay for those on the lowest incomes would make the difference between earning the minimum wage and the living wage.
Read On. Get On – a coalition of charities, teachers, parents and businesses – is calling on politicians to ensure that by 2020 all nurseries, especially those serving disadvantaged children, have at least one early-years trained graduate. It estimates that this would require 11,000 more graduates.
At the moment just 13% of staff in independent nurseries have a relevant degree.
The report suggests offering nurseries that employ an early-years teacher an increased early-years pupil premium of £1,300 for three- and four-year-olds.
Purnima Tanuku, the chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said extra funding would be welcomed by nurseries.
“At present, nurseries receive an average of £3.80 per hour from local authorities to deliver the government’s free places for three- and four-year-olds. That doesn’t cover the cost of childcare, let alone staff development,” she said.
“To suggest that nurseries are lacking quality in terms of early-years education is unfair. Despite a chronic funding shortfall, nurseries already make a huge educational difference – particularly for underprivileged children. Internationally respected research has underlined this.”
John Cridland, the director-general of the CBI, added that investing in early-years education is essential: “Without the ability to read well, access to the skills, knowledge and understanding needed for a career is difficult.”
