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The extent of educational inequality in England is laid bare today with figures showing that in one area of the country barely 3 per cent of children achieved five good GCSEs last year. In the highest-performing area 100 per cent of children achieved five good GCSEs, against a national average of 46.5 per cent.

An analysis of government data by the Conservative Party suggests that the achievement divide between pupils in the richest and poorest neighbourhoods, often living only a few minutes apart, can be vast.

In the Holme Wood area of South Bradford, West Yorkshire, a predominantly white working-class area, only 3.3 per cent of teenagers achieved the expected benchmark of five good GCSEs including English and maths last year. Only a few miles away in the Ilkley area, on the other side of the city, the figure was 86.3 per cent.

In the top-performing area, in part of Richmond-upon-Thames, London, all children achieved five good GCSEs. But in a different part of the borough, the figure was 36 per cent.

The data is published today before the release of local authority official GCSE scores for 2008.

Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, said the scale of inequality was truly shocking: “It is a scandal that there are pockets of the country where just a tiny minority of children achieve the basic level of qualifications aged 16.

“These figures show yet again that children born in deprived areas get nothing like the opportunities of those born elsewhere. It is vital that we reverse this block on aspiration. That is why our first priority in schools will be to tackle the gap in performance between rich and poor,” he said.

Conservative plans to allow new state-funded schools to open in deprived areas, based on the Swedish system, with extra cash for children from more deprived homes, would reverse a growing social class gap, he said.

The figures show that the pattern of the education achievement gap is much more complex than the traditional north/south divide. Even within wealthy areas, there can be pockets of disadvantage and educational underachievement. The fifth-worst-performing area is located in Oxford, while the second is in Milton Keynes. Similarly, the fifth-best-performing area is in Trafford, Greater Manchester, a grammar school area.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association for School and College Leaders, said that raising educational performance and aspirations in white working-class households in areas such as Bradford was one of the biggest challenges facing the education system. Schools, he said, could not do it on their own, but needed input into the entire community: “Many of these families have just given up, many will be in their second and third generation of unemployment. The size of the task facing teachers is huge.”

The figures come after concern expressed last year by Christine Gilbert, the Chief Inspector of Schools, that poor children had “the odds stacked against them” in education and that pupils were becoming divided along economic lines in schools.

Although the Department for Schools has said that closing the attainment gap between the rich and poor was a priority, the figures show just how far it has to go. Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said that the gap between rich and poor was closing, but “of course there is more to do, which is why we're introducing one-to-one tuition and catch-up support for kids at risk of falling behind”.

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