Some ethnic minority groups, especially East African Asian and Indian, perform better than white British, while others, Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi, perform worse. In recent years, the groups with lower attainments seem to have been closing the gap, though it still remains. All ethnic minority groups are more likely to continue into post-16 education and among Afro-Caribbean’s, the attainment of girls is far superior to than of boys. There are numerous explanations to this.
Discrimination can be used to explain the under-achievement of ethnic groups in schools. Marxists would support this. They believe that the education system exists to maintain the status quo and provide capitalism with a compliant labour force. Discrimination may come from the teachers through labelling. Because a pupil is black a teacher may think that they are less intelligent or are deliberately opposing them. Indian & African Asian minorities may be using educational qualifications to overcome disadvantage caused by racism by making socio-economic progress, while Afro-Caribbean male may react by rejecting all 'white' institutions including education. This leads to some ethnic groups, particularly afro-Caribbean males, getting involved in anti school sub-cultures were they actively oppose the system and will do worse in exams. This is not discrimination. However, one could argue that this was caused by it.
Another reason could be cultural misunderstanding. It is a huge disadvantage for anybody who has come from another country and is unable to speak the English language properly. Also our social norms and values are very different from places such as the middle-east.
Jenson, a new right theorist, used the bell curve which is a graphic representation of race and intelligence. He showed that blacks are at the bottom of the social class structure and have high amounts of material deprivation because they have a lower intelligence and are less able so they tend to gravitate to the bottom of society. But because some ethnic groups are more successful he said that certain racial groups have more intelligence than others. Jensen found that blacks scored 10 points less on intelligence tests that whites and claimed that they were genetically inferior. But some say that IQ tests are not culturally fair. Others have argued that it is because of environmental factors because blacks in this country are more likely to suffer from poverty and those black children who have been adopted by white parents and live financially secure and do just as well as white children in exams.
Also, the beliefs of the different ethnic groups have an effect on how well they respond to the education system. Chinese and other Asians are the highest performing group. This is because it is their culture to value education and Indian, African and Asian families may traditionally have higher expectations of educational attainment, are more likely to speak English as a first language and be more willing to educate girls than other south Asian groups. Also they have a higher social class position and are financially better off because of their long-lasting stay in this country. In addition, many of Indian and African Asian origin come from professional or business backgrounds, where a Bangladeshi background is more likely to be unskilled working class, and Afro- Caribbean skilled working class. The large number of matrifocal, single parent families among Afro-Caribbean’s may partly explain lower attainment overall.
A further explanation is material factors. How much money one has plays a vital role in educational achievement. If a family is considerably poor they will not be able to afford effects that richer families have which gives them a major disadvantage after all it is the rich that can buy a privileged Education. We know this to be true has research has shown that ethnic groups such as the Chinese do well at school compared with other groups such as afro-Caribbean’s. This is because that Chinese and Pakistani families have been in England for a much longer time a have been able to establish themselves further. Ethnic minorities have diverse patterns of housing tenure but quality tends to be low: terraced rather than semi-detached; overcrowded; concentrated in inner-city areas. This is often referred to as the 'ghetto'. Immigrants initially are dependent on the privately-rented sector, because of waiting lists and other qualifications for public housing; they have a weak economic position so there is usually a low chance of owner-occupation. Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi, with time, will get more qualification for public housing. They are more likely than white British in fact. African Asian, Indian and Pakistani more likely to be owner-occupiers than white British this is probably due to rising standard of living and the decline in public housing in the 1980s.
There are also problems in terms of work. Afro-Caribbean & Bangladeshi/Pakistani ethnic groups more likely to be in manual employment than white British, whereas Indian are less likely (though professional rather than managerial). Non-white workers receive lower wages, do more shift work and are less likely to have supervisory posts and have higher qualifications for posts held. Non-whites are more likely to be unemployed especially young Bangladeshi/Pak. and Afro-Caribbean males. However, Afro-Caribbean women have higher earnings and qualifications than their white equivalents. There are explanations for differences in work. Problems of ethnic adjustment (Liberal) - suggests that factors such as language, educational and cultural differences in the first and second generations of immigrants explains much disadvantage, which will be reduced as ethnic minorities become assimilated into the host community.
The Swann report was carried out during conservative administration which had strong views on race. The Swann report was to see attainment in individual terms and reject things like social class and social groups.
Many of the problems of Swann’s report still exist today. Many of these problems could have been addressed if Swann’s report had been implemented.
In closing, discrimination is undoubtedly a large factor in educational under achievement because of diversity within and between ethnic groups but material deprivation is much bigger. Without the proper resources or appropriate home working conditions children cannot be expected to do as well whatever their race or culture. Class is far more important than ethnicity.
