Class and race merit more attention

25 January 2010 1 min read Ravi Chandiramani Education Editorial

The underachievement of white working-class children has justifiably become a cause for national concern. Plenty of schools are making great strides to tackle the issue. Nevertheless, it has led to declarations, most recently from Communities Secretary John Denham, that social class is the most significant factor in determining school achievement rather than ethnicity.

White children who are eligible for free school meals do indeed lag badly behind white children who are not. Yet the disparity in GCSE results among different ethnic groups also remains stark. Chinese children outperform all other groups. And there are large variations within certain groups. Among Asian children, those of Indian origin as a whole outperform Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Black African children outperform Black Caribbeans. Often it is to do with issues of culture, values and expectations in the family or, for Caribbean boys, a general lack of role models. Educationalists have known these things for decades.

Doing nothing could entrench underperformance. A study by London Metropolitan University in November, for example, found some teachers underestimated the potential of Black pupils.

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