Indian-origin pupils racing ahead of white classmates in UK

Students of Indian and Chinese descent have raced ahead and grabbed record grades in GCSE English and Math, outperforming their white mates.

London, Nov 28: Students of Indian and Chinese descent have raced ahead and grabbed record grades in GCSE English and Math, outperforming their white mates.

They are the highest performing, with 70.2 per cent reaching the three Rs benchmark - reading, writing and arithmetic.

And those hailing from African, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean backgrounds are still narrowing the gap behind white pupils.

Government figures showed how white British boys are being left behind in the three Rs by pupils from 'other white backgrounds' - including new arrivals from Eastern Europe.

Many of those outperforming white British children are unlikely to speak English at home.

White boys whose mother tongue is English achieved significantly lower standards in the three Rs than girls who speak English as their second language.

The figures revealed 47.8 per cent of Asian pupils have achieved five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including English-and Math as against 45.8 per cent of white British youngsters, Daily Mail reported.

It also found that 61.6 per cent of Indian pupils reached the benchmark five grades - up 2.5 points on last year.

Pakistani youngsters improved 2.2 points to 36.8 per cent while Bangladeshi pupils went up two points to 41 per cent.

The group with Irish and Romany backgrounds scored the lowest.

Mixed white and Asian pupils recorded above-average grades, with 58.4 per cent hitting the benchmark.

Schools Minister Lord Adonis admitted that this is yet another year of GCSE success for minority ethnic pupils.

He also said that the rate of improvement in black pupils' results was more than twice the average.

ANI