'Social mobility dream' does not exist for many Northern white, working class children, MPs are warned

The Commons Education Committee heard from a number of experts on Tuesday on the issue of white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their performance at school.

And director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership lobbying group, Henri Murison, said there needed to be an overhaul of the exams system to stop it catering towards those who were aiming to study at university.

Data has shown that white pupils from poor communities – in particular boys – perform worse on average at school than peers from most other ethnic backgrounds.

The Department for Education's 2018 GCSE performance statistics show that while the national average Attainment 8 score is 46.5, white boys who are eligible for free school meals score an average of just 28.5.

And data from the House of Commons library, gathered at the request of Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies, found in 2018/2019 14 per cent of white boys and 21 per cent of white girls formerly eligible for free schools meals had started higher education by age 19.

These rates were less than half the average for all pupils (43 per cent) and below the average for all free school meals pupils (26 per cent).

Mr Murison said: “Young people and their parents often have very limited life chances within those communities. And so children, rationally, sometimes don't believe there's much point applying themselves at school because it won't lead to anything.”

Mr Murison said in many areas of the North there was a “poverty of aspiration which comes from living in that community”.

“So the point is for the white working class kids who are in a very prosperous area, that's a very different experience of what your future could look like, the kind of social mobility dream applies for that child.

“The reality is that social mobility dream does not operate in many parts of the north of England, it is not true that if you work hard, and really apply yourself, everything will happen for you, because for many young people who do that it doesn't happen.”

He said in some northern cities even when children in immigrant communities may have issues with social and economic concerns, they often had “very high levels of parental support towards success academically”.

He said: “That doesn't exist in communities with cycles of economic decline, where parents and grandparents have perhaps not had successful work outcomes, or family members and those in their streets where they grow up have not been good role models for them in terms of what success looks like.”

He said that was not necessarily due to parents not wanting their children to do well, but because they were not equipped to support them through academic settings.

And he added: “The really important distinction is between white middle class kids in more prosperous places, and white working class kids in the least successful ones, that's where actually the starkest divide is, because the difference in ethnicity hides the working class problem, because obviously, overall, black children and those other groups have less middle class kids in those groups, relatively speaking.

“So the real distinction you get is when you compare white working class children to middle class children in more prosperous areas, you can see a massive distinction there.

Dr Alex Gibson, a senior research fellow at the University of Plymouth, said the data was complex.

He said: “Once you start teasing down, it's not quite as clear cut that this is this underperforming white, British community everywhere. It does vary from place to place.”

But Mr Murison said these issues were concentrated in many places in the North because if individuals had success they often had to move away to achieve.

And he said the curriculum was only suited towards those who wanted to go to university.

“I still hold on to the belief that every parent fundamentally wants what's best for their children but your ability to support your children through what is a very highly academic GCSE system is very different.

“We've made GCSEs a preparation for A Levels, which are a preparation for university.

“And I understand why A Levels are preparation for university because they are predominantly taken by people going to university, but GCSEs are supposed to be a gateway qualification for all young people to get on, and the reality is, I think that they are not serving, they're not an accessible qualification for people who don't have lots of experience in the family of people who've gone to university.

“I think schools can do an awful lot to open those qualifications up, but the reality is, we need to have a fundamental look at what we're asking kids to study, because I don't think employers are very interested in what they include either.”

Peter Edwards, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford said the plight of white working class boys was being “largely ignored” and discussing it was a “taboo” subject.

In written evidence to the Education Committee he said: “There can now be absolutely no question about the under-achievement of white working-class children, boys in particular.”

But he added: “Our society is ignoring, at its peril, these young people from unquestionably disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Prof Edwards said there was often a “grudging” acknowledgement of the issues, but “invariably that’s as far as it goes”.

And he said: “The clear view that inevitably arises is that my enquiries / initiatives appear to be taken to be as a far-right political stance! I have found this to be most prevalent in Higher Education circles.”