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Thread ID: 9261 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-08-25
2003-08-25 00:43 | User Profile
[SIZE=3]Poor white boys flounder under 'feminised' teaching[/SIZE]
Kamal Ahmed and Mark Townsend Sunday August 17, 2003 The Observer
White working-class boys are falling behind other pupils at such an alarming rate that they are in danger of becoming the worst educated group of children. With the release of GCSE results this week expected to show that girls have again increased the academic gap between the sexes, David Miliband, the Schools Minister, said it was time for schools to 'tailor their learning' so boys get as much out of schools as girls.
'The great story of the comprehensive revolution is actually the enormous rise in achievement by girls,' Miliband said. 'They have been in a way the prime beneficiaries across all social classes.'
**Figures from the Department for Education reveal that white boys from disadvantaged backgrounds perform far worse than their equivalent in other ethnic groups or girls from similar economic backgrounds. **
Among poorer white boys only 18 per cent achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A to C compared with an average among white boys of 50 per cent. Among poorer girls, 25 per cent get five or more GCSEs at A to C compared with a national average of 61 per cent.
**Poorer white boys are outstripped academically by Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese boys. The only group that do worse are Afro-Caribbean children, where only 16 per cent of poorer pupils gain five or more GCSEs at grades A to C. **
The Government is already trying to help the shocking under-performance of black boys. It talks about white boys' under-performance far less regularly.
Education officials are concerned that a culture where it is 'cool not to learn' is taking hold in the classroom among certain groups.
There are worries that what are seen by some as more 'feminised' ways of working - including continuous assessment and long periods of study leave at home - are leaving boys floundering.
Some 55 per cent of girls achieve the national standard of five or more GCSEs at grade A to C. Only 44 per cent boys do.
'Looking at those statistics it is clear that white, working-class boys are not doing as well as their brains and their skills and talents suggest they should do,' Miliband said.
'Here is a group that is too often being short changed by the system.'
He said boys thrived where there was a culture of achieve ment in a school, where home study was limited and where strong discipline was promoted.
'It is very important that the boundaries are clear,' he said. 'It has clearly been the case that historically discipline has not been taken seriously enough. It's high time the priority is now given.'
[url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1020573,00.html]The Observer[/url]