1) Explain what is meant by ‘material deprivation.’

Material deprivation refers to the inability for households or individuals to afford these consumption goods and activities that are typical in a society as a given time regardless of people’s preferences with respect to these items.

2) Identify three government policies that may have reduced social class differences in educational achievement. * EMA – Educational Maintenance Allowance: The scheme was created to offer an allowance to those on college to encourage them to continue with the education system. An additional benefit of this was to potentially enable those on low incomes to afford to continue with an education in reference to travel and resources. * Sure Start – Sure Start aims to work with parents to promote intellectual, social and physical development of babies and other young children. They do this by offering family support, health care and advice alongside play sessions for the children. * National Curriculum – This is aimed to reduce the social class differences because everyone is taught the same subjects which is perceived to give the same equal chances across the board.

3) Using materials from item A and elsewhere, assess the importance of cultural factors in causing social class differences in educational achievement.

Pupils in education from a working class background (a pupil whose background includes a far more manual job) have a tendency to underachieve in education compared to pupils in education from a middle class background (one from a non­manual background). Hence tend to gain lower GCSE results and don’t go on to further and higher education for example statistics show. Factors outside the school such as material deprivation and cultural deprivation as well as linguistic depravation can all affect achievement, and are all linked in with social class.
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