Unstacking the odds

In December UK education secretary Justine Greening launched a new national plan to boost social mobility through education: ‘Where you start still all too often determines where you finish’. She is right that it is an issue needing attention; the latest State of the Nation report argued that the UK’s social mobility problem is getting worse rather than better.

The problem of providing opportunities and choices to people from disadvantaged backgrounds is a huge and multi-faceted issue – it will take more than a new years’ resolution to resolve. Indeed, it’s a far wider problem than can be tackled through education alone. Nevertheless, important work is going on, even in chemistry education, that’s worth taking notice of.