The call was made last week by Paul Gregg, professor of economics at Bristol University, following research he conducted with Elizabeth Washbrook of Oxford University that showed that fathers could play a key role in their children's early education. The researchers found that where fathers had shouldered 25 per cent of the caring burden, including bathing, feeding, reading stories and singing songs, their children performed 2 per cent better in national curriculum tests for maths and English at the age of seven.
They also found that fathers were most likely to become involved if their spouse or partner returned to work, thereby helping to compensate for the absence of the working mother.
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