Underachievement of white pupils set to be investigated

Camilla Turner

WHITE working-class pupil underachievement at school is to be the subject of an inquiry, prompting the education select committee chairman to deny that concentrating on the plight of white children is “racist”.

Robert Halfon, a Conservative MP who chairs the select committee, said it was “bizarre” that he had been labelled racist for highlighting the issue.

“The whole premise is to look at leftbehind cohorts,” he said. “One of those, sadly, is white working-class pupils from poor backgrounds, and within that group, boys do worse than girls.

“I have been accused of racism, which I find really hard to fathom. Other ethnic groups are outperforming white, so I can’t see why this is racist.”

White pupils were typically the least likely to achieve their potential between primary and secondary school, according to the Department for Education’s official progress measures.

The chief inspector of schools has previously said that children from white working-class families can “lack the aspiration and drive” of migrant communities.