A child’s genes have a far greater impact on exam results than the quality of their school or the efforts of their parents, researchers claim.
Analysis of 11,000 teenagers’ GCSE results suggests that DNA is twice as significant as environmental factors such as school choice in determining educational success.
The study, published by researchers at King’s College London, will go some way towards swaying the course of the great nature vs nurture debate.
The new study suggests that each child’s genes make, on average, a 58 per cent difference for their results in the core subjects of English, maths and science.
Environmental factors such as school, neighbourhood and the family home, are said to have an impact of just 29 per cent.
Other factors unique to each individual account for the remaining 13 per cent, the study suggests.
Genetics appear to have a bigger influence on results for science subjects than for humanities such as media studies, art or music – 58 per cent compared with 42 per cent.
Study leader Nicholas Shakeshaft said: ‘Children differ in how easily they learn at school. Our research shows that differences in students’ educational achievement owe more to nature than nurture.’
However, he warned against assuming that educational achievements are ‘genetically predetermined’.
Instead, recognising the predispositions of each child may help improve learning, he said.
He said a personalised education that took account of children’s differences would be better than a ‘one size fits all’ system which ignores genetics.
