Government education adviser has warned that for boys at least, “being white” had become “the problem” in schools.
By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor
3:34PM BST 13 Oct 2013
Britain cannot expect to flourish economically unless there is a concerted effort to halt academic failure by white boys as they are the “dominant racial group”, a senior Government education adviser has warned.
Dr Tim Leunig, an economic historian and aide to the schools minister David Laws, said that for boys at least “being white” had become “the problem” in schools.
He argued that from an economic point of view it matters “more” to target underachievement among white pupils than others.
And he added that the education system could be described as “institutionally sexist” by failing to ensure boys and girls are making similar levels of progress.
His comments, reported by the TES, come after official figures show that white boys from deprived backgrounds are now the worst performing ethnic group in reading tests for six years olds.
Just under half of poor white British boys – defined as those receiving free school meals – passed the test, being outscored by similar pupils from Black, Asian and Chinese backgrounds.
Dr Leunig, a London School of Economics academic working as a Government policy adviser, said in a talk to members of the Association of School and College Leaders: “We as a society have to ask ourselves: ‘Why is it that white kids are doing so much worse?’
“We have to tackle that as a society.
“For the future of Britain it obviously matters more to tackle white underperformance just because there are more white people.
“You cannot have your dominant racial group doing badly in school and expect to flourish as a country in the next generation and beyond.
“That just won’t hold so we need to tackle that one really explicitly.”
He added: “If your school happens to have a lot of Chinese students you are likely to do well on progress measures.
“That is the reality – the same is true for almost all ethnic groups other than white.”
In a reference to the favourite catchphrase of Sacha Baron Cohen’s comic character Ali G, he said: “If Ali G wants a new comic character in schools he has to say ‘Is it because I is white?’ because that is the reality.
“It is being white that is the problem in schools at the moment.”
Calling for schools to be measured on steps they take to help boys close the gap academically with girls, he said: “You could perfectly well describe the school system at the moment as institutionally sexist.
“The difference in progress rates between girls and boys is really very large indeed.”
Figures published by the Department for Education earlier this month show that almost 180,000 pupils failed to reach the expected level in a new reading test this summer.
They showed that even after 12 months of compulsory education boys are already lagging behind girls.
Dr Leunig’s remarks emerged as it emerged that the Department for Education has been examining whether genes are more important than teaching standards in determining pupils’ academic success.
Ministers have been briefed by Prof Robert Plomin, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, on research concluding that inherited intelligence could account for almost 60 per cent of teenagers’ scores in GCSEs with factors such as school performance much less important.
Prof Plomin’s work was cited in a paper written by the Education Secretary Michael Gove’s special adviser Dominic Cummings which was leaked at the weekend.
Categories: Societal
Engineering Evil 
Reblogged this on Dak's Bays and commented:
An interesting article, and some thought provoking commentary.
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A civilisation is measured not by the rights it grants its majority but the privileges it allows its minorities. Muslim families are as entitled as any other religious group to schools that nurture their children’s faith. Muslim pupils should be educated in Muslim schools because the current system is marginalising them. Teaching Muslim children in a Muslim school would remove the “problem of them being exposed” to values that conflict with Islamic faith. Muslim pupils are disadvantaged and marginalised in the city’s state schools because the cultural heritage of the curriculum is “European and Christian”.
Muslim schools provide an education in accordance with the Muslim beliefs and values, such as providing single-sex schooling after puberty. They are thus a response to the danger of absorption into the dominant culture.
The number of Muslim children is on the increase in Bradford state and church schools. There are lot of schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be opted out as Muslim Academies for proper education. British history from early periods to present day should be taught in all schools. Islamic history from the early period to present day should be part and parcel of the National Curriculum. I think to be fair the Arabic and Persian contributions to the world in medicine, mathematics and other sciences plus their involvement in world affairs should be taught.
The demand for state funded Muslim schools is in accordance with the law of the land. Muslims are not asking for any favour. I set up the first Muslim school in London in 1981 and now there are 188 Muslim schools and only 12 are state funded. I would like to see each and every Muslim child in a state funded Muslim schools and I hope one day my dream would come true. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental period. There are few schools for Hindu and Sikh communities. Now even Black community is thinking of setting up their own state funded schools for their own children with black teachers.
You better teach your children in your own schools and let migrant communities teach their children according to their needs and demands.British Establishment and society should concentrate on the evils of their own society and stop trying to change the way of life of Muslims. Muslim community does not want to integrate with the British society, indulging in incivility, anti-social behaviour, drug and knife culture, binge drinking, teenage pregnancies and abortion.
A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. He/she is well versed in standard English, Arabic, Urdu and other community languages so that they do not find themselves cut off from their cultural heritage and are able to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry.
IA
London School of Islamics Trust
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
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Correct me if I am wrong, but you stated, “Muslim community does not want to integrate with the British society…”, most Muslim immigrants are first or second generation British, and I am assuming there was a reason you left your original country, to move to the UK.
Yet instead of integrating with British society, you want to bring with you the same failed cultural issues that plague your homelands, and not only that but you wish to (for lack of a better word) colonize the UK.
Somehow you think this makes sense, and is a good thing.
If it failed in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the rest of the middle east, why on the Goddess’ Green earth would you think those same things would work in the UK?
They won’t, you will turn the UK into the same cesspool of humanity you (or your parents) and your people originally fled (and were so graciously offered asylum by the UK, to say nothing of the benefits that the people of the UK so generously give to new immigrants).
BTW, your words give the impression that you are,
sexist (…such as providing single-sex schooling…),
racist (…British society, indulging in incivility, anti-social behaviour…)
and
a bigot (… the “problem of them being exposed” to values that conflict with Islamic faith…)
I am sure that is not at all what you meant to say, but you said them anyway.
If I may be so bold to suggest a different course of action, bring the good parts of your culture and history to the UK, integrate them into the preexisting culture and history, do not try to maintain some sort of ethnic enclave which will only be doomed to horrendous failure. Dynamic cultures change and grow over time, they do not stagnate, stagnation leads to extinction.
Don’t be a dinosaur.
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