Children born in August do significantly worse in exams than classmates born 11 months earlier at the beginning of the academic year, a landmark study shows.
August-born boys are 12 per cent less likely than September-born boys to get good GCSEs and girls are 9 per cent less likely.
In addition, August-born youngsters are 20 percent more likely to ditch academic study and learn a trade from the age of 16. They are 20 per cent less likely to go to an elite university.
And it is not just their education that suffers as they are more likely to be bullied at primary school and have lower confidence in their academic ability.
As a result as teenagers, they are also more inclined to smoke, binge drink and take cannabis and fewer are in control of their lives, according to a report published today.
Claire Crawford, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), co-author of the report, said children face a penalty "simply because they are unlucky enough to have been born late in the school year".
To redress the balance, August-born children could spend a year longer at school under proposals put forward by the study's authors.
Or they could sit tests only when they are deemed ready, or have their test scores age-adjusted.
The shake-up would involveending the arbitrarysystem which expects pupils to reach academic levels by the end of a "key stage" at school.
They would instead be expected to achieve those levels by a certain age, for example the crucial "level four" by eleven-and-a-half rather than by the time they leave primary school.
Another alternative, suggested by the authors, is to change the admissions process to ensure children only start school after a certain age.


据英国《每日邮报》11月1日报道，一项具有里程碑意义的研究显示，八月份出生的孩子比起那些年长11个月于九月份学年开始时出生的孩子，在考试中明显表现得要糟糕一些。
八月出生的男生比九月出生的男生在获得优秀的GCSE课程成绩的概率上低了12%，而女生则低了9%。

此外，八月出生的青少年有20%以上的几率在16岁时选择抛弃学术学习，转而去学习职业技能。而他们进入名校就读的几率也低了20%。

在教育状况方面，这些孩子不仅仅是在上小学时更容易被欺负，也降低了他们在学术能力上的信心。

今日发表的一篇报道中说，对于十几岁的青少年来说，这样的情况也导致他们更容易吸烟、酗酒、吸食大麻，难以掌控自己的生活。

这篇报告的合著者，来自英国财政学会（IFS）的克莱尔•克劳德福说，孩子们面临着一种惩罚，"仅仅只是因为他们不幸地出生在学年末"。
该研究的作者提出建议，为了匡正这种平衡，八月出生的孩子应该在学校多待一年。

或者是只有当他们认为准备好了以后再参加考试，要么就让考试成绩根据他们的年龄加以调整。
政策的大调整应该包括终止这种任意的系统，这一系统期望学生在学校生活的"关键阶段"结束时达到要求的学术水平。

取而代之的应该是期望学生在特定的年龄达到相应水平，比如说，要求学生在十一岁半时达到"四级"，而不是在他们从小学毕业的时候。

作者还提供了另一种选择，就是改变学校的录取进程，以保证只有适龄的儿童才能入学就读。

• beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
• addition [ə´diʃən] n.加；加法；附加物 (初中英语单词)
• primary [´praiməri] a.主要的 n.居首位的 (初中英语单词)
• institute [´institju:t] n.学院 vt.建立；设置 (初中英语单词)
• involve [in´vɔlv] vt.卷缠；包括；使专注 (初中英语单词)
• system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
• achieve [ə´tʃi:v] vt.完成；达到；获得 (初中英语单词)
• penalty [´penlti] n.刑罚；惩罚；障碍 (高中英语单词)
• ending [´endiŋ] n.结尾，结局 (高中英语单词)
• academic [,ækə´demik] a.学术的 n.大学学生 (英语四级单词)
• unlucky [ʌn´lʌki] a.倒霉的，不幸的 (英语四级单词)
• arbitrary [´ɑ:bitrəri] a.任意的；专断的 (英语四级单词)
• alternative [ɔ:l´tə:nətiv] a.二中选一的 n.选择 (英语四级单词)
• august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)
• landmark [´lændmɑ:k] n.界标；里程碑 (英语六级单词)
• fiscal [´fiskəl] a.财政的 (英语六级单词)
• redress [ri´dres] vt.&n.纠正；调整 (英语六级单词)