White working-class boys becoming an underclass

**min0 lee** · 06-18-2008, 11:40 AM

White working-class boys becoming an underclass - Telegraph

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last updated: 4:11 PM BST 18/06/2008

White teenagers are less likely to go to university than school-leavers from other ethnic groups - even with the same A-level results, according to official figures.

The gap is widest among male teenagers from poor backgrounds, raising fresh fears that working class boys are becoming the education "underclass" in England.
According to a Government report, just over one-in-20 white boys from poor homes goes on to university.
This compares to 66 per cent of Indian girls and 65 per cent of young women from Chinese families.

An analysis published by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said the rise in the number of women going to university over the last 10 or 20 years "had made the performance of males look relatively dismal".

The report said many working class white boys dropped out of education at the earliest opportunity, aged 16.
Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said schools needed to intervene at an earlier age to get white boys interested in college and university.

"I think that culture plays a very important role," he said. "Part of what we have to do is to look across society and look among the ethnic minority groups where there is a very strong attachment to education and try to learn from that."

An analysis carried out by the DIUS looked at the number of teenagers going on to university, broken down by gender, ethnicity, social class and achievement at school.

It found that women were in the minority at university up to 1992, but over the last 15 years the balance had shifted.

Last year the proportion of young men studying for a degree fell to 35 per cent, compared to 47 per cent of women.

Despite fears that women are much more likely to go to university, the report said ethnicity and social class had a "larger" bearing on staying on rates.
The gaps "did not disappear entirely" even when comparing students with the same A-level results, researchers said.

"In fact, in the case of ethnicity, it was overwhelmingly clear the young people from non-white backgrounds were much more likely to participate in higher education than their white peers with similar prior attainment," said the study.

Just six per cent of white boys eligible for free school meals went to university compared to 26 per cent of working class young men from ethnic minority backgrounds. Some 34 per cent of girls from deprived ethnic minority families went to university, according to researchers.

Young white men from poor homes were eight and a half times less likely to go to university than ethnic minority women from middle-class families.
Among some ethnic groups, university participation rates were even higher.

Overall, 58 per cent of men from Indian backgrounds and 66 per cent of women go on to university. Among Chinese families, 60 per cent of boys and 65 per cent of women go to university.

Black Caribbean boys were the only group less likely to go to university than white boys.
The Conservatives said the disclosure proved that Labour was failing pupils from poor homes.

But the Government insisted a series of programmes had been launched to break down the barriers, including sending successful male role models into state schools.
In Leicester, undergraduates hold a football competition for schoolboys to give them a taste of student life.
It is also hoped the Government's new-style diploma qualifications - combining work-based training and classroom study - will prove more popular than traditional A-levels among many young men.

**DOMS** · 06-18-2008, 12:09 PM

Do they have some sort of Affirmative Action in England? It's gotta be disheartening to go deeply into debt trying to get an education when the minorities around you get a free ride.

**The Monkey Man** · 06-18-2008, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by DOMS

Do they have some sort of Affirmative Action in England? It's gotta be disheartening to go deeply into debt trying to get an education when the minorities around you get a free ride.

It sure is!

Oh, I don't know about England -

**KelJu** · 06-18-2008, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by DOMS

Do they have some sort of Affirmative Action in England? It's gotta be disheartening to go deeply into debt trying to get an education when the minorities around you get a free ride.

I can't speak for Europe, but in the US, being poor, white, and male is the absolute hardest group to be in to earn a higher education.

**min0 lee** · 06-18-2008, 12:29 PM

I see it here, the Asians and Hindus tend to take education much more serouis than others.

**KelJu** · 06-18-2008, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I see it here, the Asians and Hindus tend to take education much more serouis than others.

That observation may be true, but it doesn't really reflect what is actually happening. The Asians and Indians that are here now are probably first, second, or third generation. They either moved here, are were born to parents that moved here. That means someone got off of their ass and took a huge risk coming here for a chance to work hard and make a better life. Those are the Asians and Indians you are seeing, and it doesn't reflect the attitude of their entire ethnic group. You are seeing the cream of the crop of that ethnicity.

If you look at many Asian countries, India, and various Middle Eastern Countries, most of the population is uneducated and unmotivated. They have nothing to work towards, so they just exist.

**min0 lee** · 06-18-2008, 12:44 PM

True.

**goob** · 06-18-2008, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I see it here, the Asians and Hindus tend to take education much more serouis than others.

Evidently.....

**min0 lee** · 06-18-2008, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by goob

Evidently.....

Flark yuo!

**DaMayor** · 06-18-2008, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by goob

Evidently.....

Hey, take it easy on MinO...not everyone can type with a lisssthp.

**maniclion** · 06-18-2008, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by KelJu

That observation may be true, but it doesn't really reflect what is actually happening. The Asians and Indians that are here now are probably first, second, or third generation. They either moved here, are were born to parents that moved here. That means someone got off of their ass and took a huge risk coming here for a chance to work hard and make a better life. Those are the Asians and Indians you are seeing, and it doesn't reflect the attitude of their entire ethnic group. You are seeing the cream of the crop of that ethnicity.

If you look at many Asian countries, India, and various Middle Eastern Countries, most of the population is uneducated and unmotivated. They have nothing to work towards, so they just exist.

That's what I was about to write. So 66% of a few thousand Indian girls where as there are millions of white males. They may go to college anyway but that doesn't mean they are going to be successful. The poorer white kids will learn a trade and probably eventually have their own businesses while those college kids will be just paying off their medical/law school debts.....

**min0 lee** · 06-18-2008, 02:37 PM

Sufferin' succotash!

**tucker01** · 06-18-2008, 03:17 PM

Isn't there a stat out also that Males are less likely to go to University in comparison to Females?

I know seeing the Teenage girls now and how they dress it is no wonder Teenage boys can't concentrate on school

**The Monkey Man** · 06-18-2008, 05:21 PM

I work with several Indians
and they were all born in India and immigrated here as kids...

They went to school in the US, and on the US dime somehow?

**BulkMeUp** · 06-19-2008, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by KelJu

That observation may be true, but it doesn't really reflect what is actually happening. The Asians and Indians that are here now are probably first, second, or third generation. They either moved here, are were born to parents that moved here. That means someone got off of their ass and took a huge risk coming here for a chance to work hard and make a better life. Those are the Asians and Indians you are seeing, and it doesn't reflect the attitude of their entire ethnic group. You are seeing the cream of the crop of that ethnicity..

The generation that will grow up without the influence of the older generation that did all the hard work might be just as bad. Who knows.

**BulkMeUp** · 06-19-2008, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

I work with several Indians
and they were all born in India and immigrated here as kids...

They went to school in the US, and on the US dime somehow?

If they became citizens then they would get access to the same facilities (and pay the same taxes) as every other natural born citizen.

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