Ethnic minority educational achievements

Younger generations from many of Britain's minority ethnic groups are succeeding in breaking through the class barrier.

 

Educational achievements have helped children of working-class parents in the Caribbean, African, Indian and Chinese communities to obtain managerial and professional jobs at a faster rate than their white counterparts, according to research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

 

But the study, based on surveys tracing children's progress over 30 years, finds that young people from the Pakistani community are an exception.

 

Although their parents are heavily concentrated in the working class, they show less upward mobility than children from white manual workers' families.

 

 

Stakeholder Response: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

 

 

Lucinda Platt, author of the research, said: "There is good news to the extent that a disproportionate number of the young people who are upwardly mobile are the children of parents who came to this country as migrants.

 

"But their welcome progress is no cause for complacency - especially when it appears to be so much harder for young people from Pakistani or Bangladeshi families to get ahead. We need to do much more to understand why this is happening and the extent to which factors such as racial discrimination are involved."

 

Stakeholder Response: ATL

 

 

Deng Yai, Association of Teachers and Lecturers policy adviser on equalities, said: "This report confirms recent research for ATL ('Diverse futures, equal chances: Funding ethnic minority achievement in education') which shows there is increased diversity in the ethnic mix of pupils in our schools.  

 

"We believe policymakers and schools must do more to match resources to need as the class and cultural maps of Britain become more complex.  

 

"In particular, we recommend the ethnic minority achievement grant is reformed to better serve its purpose.

 

"ATL believes that education provides a key means of tackling inequality and building a cohesive society.  

 

"Educational achievement can help promote social inclusion and upward social mobility, so it is vital that schools and policymakers tackle under-achievement.  

 

"We must ensure all ethnic minority pupils in our schools achieve their potential. In so doing everybody wins - our ethnic minority communities, our society, and our economy."