A new Unicef report measuring the gap between "average" children and the poor has ranked New Zealand 35th out of the 41 OECD countries in educational achievement courtesy of its bad Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results in 2012.
The Unicef report Fairness for Children contained league tables of the gaps in income, education, health and quality of life in the 41 OECD countries.
The assessment was done according to Pisa results between 2006 and 2012 and showed the gap had increased over that time. It found that across the OECD, children from poor backgrounds were 18 percentage points more likely to achieve low results than the average child. In New Zealand, that was about 21 percentage points. It also ranked New Zealand 17th in income inequality but New Zealand was not included in the analyses of health or life satisfaction.
Deborah Morris-Travers, Unicef's New Zealand advocacy manager, said the gap in educational achievement was a concern. "We know that educational success depends so much on a child's health, the income of families and their ability to provide educational input and opportunities."
She said childhood had a significant impact on the life that child would experience as an adult. Those impacts could be mitigated by effective Government policy.