Why do Chinese perform better than whites?
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Your support makes all the difference.DIFFERENCES BETWEEN the achievement of ethnic minority groups are stark. Whereas the proportion of Black Car- ibbean and Pakistani pupil achieving five or more A*-Cs is 29 per cent, the figure for Indians is 54 per cent and for Chinese 61 per cent. Bangladeshis do a little better with 33 per cent and whites record 47 per cent.
Whereas Bangladeshis and Pakistani pupils often struggle at primary school, perhaps because English is their second language, they do better at secondary school, though both achieve too few high grades at GCSE. By 16, Bangladeshis are doing well compared with other pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds but are still well below the national average.
For Black Caribbeans, the picture is reversed. The report says: "It is urgent that secondary schools establish what is happening to Black Caribbean pupils to cause a good start in primary schools to turn into such a marked decline and take action to reverse it."
Black Caribbean boys are the worst performing group of all. They do even worse than white working-class boys. Reasons for the differences are hard to establish. There is very little monitoring of ethnic minority groups: in primary schools, it barely exists. And there is little research on the subject.
The old belief that poor exam results can be caused by genetic programming has been largely discredited. Sir Herman Ouseley, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, has suggested that it may not be black boys but working class boys from all groups who are a problem.
Many experts believe that teachers' racial stereotypes of pupils contribute. They expect Indians to work hard and do well while blacks are expected to do badly in academic studies but excel at sport.
Black boys may do worse than black girls because they are boisterous and teachers find them threatening.
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