Almost “no progress” has been made to close the attainment gap between England’s poorest students and their richer peers in the past three years, a new study shows.

The charity Teach First said 44.9 per cent of disadvantaged students received grade 4-9 passes in both their GCSE English and maths exams last year, compared with 72 per cent of students from richer backgrounds.

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The charity’s analysis found that the figure had only marginally improved overall for poorer students in England since 2017, when it stood at 44.5 per cent, while in some parts of the country the attainment gap had increased.

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Russell Hobby, Teach First’s chief executive, said the recent turmoil around exam results “threw a sharp light” on the “inequality” of the education system.

“However, inequality in exam results is hardly unique to this year,” he added.

“This report has laid bare that due to unequal access to a brilliant education, pupils from wealthier homes are awarded better results than their peers year after year.”

The charity said that while 59 per cent of disadvantaged students in Inner London achieved a pass grade in English and maths last year, the figure dropped to less than half in eight out of 10 other regions.

It said there was also evidence that the attainment gap had widened in the past few years in the North West, Outer London, the South East, the South West, and Yorkshire and the Humber.

In the South West, the area with the lowest pass rate for disadvantaged students in the country, 40 per cent passed English and maths in 2019, down from 41 per cent in 2017.

The rate for non-disadvantaged students increased from 70 per cent to 72 per cent.

Inner and Outer London (54 per cent) had the highest pass rates for disadvantaged students in England last year.

Teach First said long-term funding for schools with the poorest pupils was needed to tackle the issue, along with financial incentives for earlier career teachers at those institutions.

David Thomas, principal of Jane Austen College in Norwich and a Teach First ambassador, said: “Now, thanks to Covid-19, pupils have lost 10 per cent of their time in secondary school - and we know that many of them weren’t getting a good education through that period. So we should be shouting from the rooftops about this and taking urgent action.”

Teach First provides support to teachers and schools in disadvantaged communities.