Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men Debate
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Jim Shannon
Main Page: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)Department Debates - View all Jim Shannon's debates with the Department for Education
Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men
Jim Shannon Excerpts(1 day, 12 hours ago)
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Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing this forward. He is absolutely right, and this is a massive issue in Northern Ireland, as I said to him earlier. There are a number of young Protestant males who do not achieve, are disadvantaged when it comes to free school meals and come nowhere close to achieving educational standards. Our Government back home have put a policy in place to try to address that, but does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Minister should work on this matter collectively with the regional Administration? If there is a disadvantage, not just in Northern Ireland but elsewhere, it is time to work on that together.
Alistair Strathern
The hon. Member is right to draw attention to the particular challenge faced by disadvantaged young men. While there has rightly been a lot of focus on challenges holding back all boys and men across education—the Education Committee was due to hold an inquiry into that during the previous Parliament—the compounding impacts of socioeconomic inequality and gender are often less explored.