When Liz Kendall – remember her? – raised the issue of white working-class underperformance in schools at the start of the Labour leadership election, it provoked some handwringing about singling one ethnic group out. But Kendall was right to do so: the performance of the white working-class in England’s schools is abject. While the performance of ethnic minorities in schools has improved markedly in the last decade, attainment by the white working-class has remained dire.
Eighty-three per cent of Chinese pupils on free school meals achieve five Cs or above in their GCSEs, yet just 35 per cent of white students on FSMs in England do – comfortably the lowest of any ethnic group. “There are unacceptable attainment gaps at every stage of children’s development,” says Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust. “These now affect the white working class more than any other community.” Any serious strategy to raise standards in England’s schools must have the white working-class at its core, or else ignore the most systematic failure in schools today.
Content from our partners
