A UK government report has found that ethnic-minority pupils are less likely to feel bullied, more academically confident and happier than their white peers.
The report, commissioned by the Department for Education, included a survey of almost 9 000 families and found that children and parents from ethnic-minority backgrounds report higher positive responses regarding all aspects of education compared to their white counterparts.
Dr Rakib Ehsan, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, described the findings in an article for Spiked Online as “yet another blow to those who think Britain is awash with white privilege and racism”. He adds that the findings “are certainly at odds with the miserable narrative peddled by Britain’s grievance-industrial complex”.
Some of the results of the report are as follows:
- 82% of ethnic-minority pupils were confident about their studies compared to 73% of white pupils;
- 96% of black families said that their child attended school every day compared to 80% of white families; and
- Close to a quarter of white pupils reported being the victim of bullying compared to 15% of their non-white school-mates, and the former are, in general, more anxious than the latter.
When asked to rate their child’s happiness on a scale from 1 to 10, the average answer from ethnic-minority families was 8.3 compared to an average of 7.8 among white families.
Some 86% of ethnic-minority pupils said that they had plans to enter the sixth form (the final years of school), while 72% of white pupils reported the same desire.
In the 2020-21 academic year, pupils of Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and black African origin achieved, on average, better outcomes on the GCSE qualification compared to their white British counterparts.
Ehsan, likening the report to last year’s Sewell report that debunked the claim that Britain is systemically racist, said:
“This report shows once again that educational outcomes in modern-day Britain are not determined by skin colour. Family structures, parental attitudes towards schooling, not to mention migrant optimism and minority appreciation for state-funded education, all play a far greater role in shaping pupils’ educational achievements.”