Explain the influence of social class and gender on educational achievement 'Sexual equality' and 'Classlessness' all echo from recent UK academic and media debates concerning education, and perhaps rightly so: according to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (August 2000 results) girls' have now surpassed boys' achievement at G.C.S.E and A level examinations in some subjects and, yes Britain has moved a long way from the tripartite system which was said to mirror the …showed first 75 words of 2936 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2936 total…the labor market, discriminatory practices become more powerful. Furthermore as Dr Gillian Plummer's title of her article (Times, September, 2000) suggests: 'Forget gender, class is still the real divide'. She argues that reports of girls success mask the true picture and that perhaps the only reason for increasing success among girls is among the middle classes and so she challenges the government: 'what action is Labor taking to raise the academic performance of working class girls.