The surprising scale of educational inequality
by Rakib Ehsan, Artillery Row:
One of the most counterintuitive facts about modern Britain, especially for those with liberal temperaments, is that white working-class teenagers in England’s post-industrial towns, coastal communities and deprived rural areas are among the least likely to go to university.
Back in January 2021, Chris Millward, the OfS director of fair access and participation, bluntly described the way white working-class communities have missed out: “The expansion of educational opportunities, and the belief that equality of opportunity would flow from this, have not delivered for them,” he remarked. “So, they are less likely to see education as the way to improve their lives.”
Recently-published Department for Education (DfE) figures revealed striking ethno-racial disparities when it comes to progression rates into British universities. White pupils were the least likely to progress to higher education by nineteen years of age (39.7 per cent). The likelihood rises to 48.1 per cent for mixed race pupils, 62.1 per cent for black pupils, 65.7 per cent for Asian-origin pupils and 81.0 per cent for Chinese-heritage pupils. For white male pupils on free school meals (FSM), this figure crashed to just 13.6 per cent for 2020/21.
It is safe to say that broader racial categories such as “white”, “black” and “Asian” are unhelpful as they mask notable ethnic-group differences based on educational performance. What is clear is that higher-education participation is relatively low among white working-class pupils — especially young boys.
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