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LONDON - In a feat of educational attainment that will alarm British parents, Chinese children have outperformed the English in English by the age of 11, according to an ethnic breakdown of exam and test results just out.
They have the best results of all ethnic groups in national curriculum tests at 11, Eighty-six per cent reach the required standard - compared to just 75 per cent of white youngsters.
Their success is carried through to GCSE level where results show that 65.8 per cent of Chinese pupils obtain five A* to C grade passes, including maths and English - under the new measure used to rank schools by the Department for Education and Skills.
Youngsters of Indian origin also perform better, with 59.1 per cent, compared to 44.3 per cent pass rate for white British pupils.
The figures are likely to lead to a new bout of soul-searching over educational standards. On coming to power in 1997, Tony Blair promised his Government's priority would be "Education, education, education". But 10 years of New Labour have generated a series of controversies over top-up fees for higher education, and the introduction of city academies into the state school system.
The figures are revealed in an analysis of last year's GCSE and national curriculum test results for 7, 11 and 14-year-olds published yesterday.
Just over 1000 Chinese pupils sat the English national curriculum test for 11-year-olds last year, while 2200 did their GCSEs.
Experts say the home culture in Indian and Chinese families places more accent on the importance of education. The figures come after a week of angst over British children, following a Unicef report which cited poor family relationships as one of the main factors blighting childhood and adolescence.
- INDEPENDENT
