Student life

Studies made by the IFS show that the children born in August are 6.4% less likely to achieve high grades  and around 2% of them are less likely to go to university at the age of 18 or 19.

It’s because students born in summer are in the same class with students born between September and December, who are older and more mature. Therefore, the school subjects and tests can be more difficult for summer children, which may result in their lower grades. This could hurt their self-esteem, which could have a negative effect later in their life.

Some countries, e.g. the UK plan to allow students, who were born in the summer, to start school one year later. However, education professionals fear that some parents would “cheat” when enrolling their kids in school by applying twice to the best schools where the competition is fierce.

One solution could be new age-adjusted test scores which would equal the chances for summer-born students. Another interesting solution is used in Finland, where children only go to school if they are seven years old. In that age there is a smaller difference between the summer children and their slightly older class mates.

eFaqt Team
@eFaqt Team

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