Against this background, the programme does appear to be yielding some benefits for a group that includes some particularly disadvantaged individuals: two-fifths of those entering the New Deal are functionally illiterate.

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Some cautioned that the results could be overstated because Americans without a high school diploma about 12 percent of the population, down from about 22 percent in 1990, according to the Census Bureau were a shrinking group that was now more likely to be disadvantaged in ways besides education, compared with past generations.

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Baroness Hollins, a crossbench peer and consultant psychiatrist in learning disability, described the group as among the "most disadvantaged and marginalised individuals in society".

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The Russell Group of leading universities said that it would be the most disadvantaged pupils who would lose out from a change to the system.

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