White British Working-Class Boys Least Likely

12 IMPACT WHITE WORKING-CLASS BOYS LEAST LIKELY TO GET INTO UNIVERSITY

We often hear that race, gender and socioeconomics can affect an individual’s chances of achieving academic success. Whether scoring perfect GCSE and A level results or getting a place at a top university, it seems that identity really matters.

In the latest round of discussions in academic and journalistic circles on how the identity of our students affects their educational opportunities, a new group has emerged as distinctly underachieving: White British working-class boys. But does this problem really exist and if it does, have we all become too ‘woke’ to realise it? Has modern politics, in its efforts to ensure the success and welfare of minority groups, somehow become distracted from the difficulties that white communities can face?

“If you’re a white, working-class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university” (Theresa May, 2016)

A study conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on all students in England who took their GCSEs in the 2008/9 academic year, found that White British working-class boys are now the group of students least likely to go to university. Although published in November of 2015, this discovery only found major media coverage after the then Prime Minister Theresa May mentioned the statistic in her first statement in July of 2016. “If you’re a white, working-class boy,” the Prime Minister remarked, “you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.” Since the comment, the media across the UK have rushed to cover the story. Each publication keen to press their own covert political biases upon it. Looking at the data, we can however break down and analyse the phenomena impartially.

First, ethnicity. Higher education participation has risen far quicker for ethnic minorities across the studied time period compared to White British students. The IFS study found that Black African pupils are almost 35% more likely to go to university than otherwise-identical White British pupils. Most other ethnic minority groups are around 15-25% more likely.

“Over 50% of universities admit less than 5% of white students from low participation neighbourhoods” (National Education Opportunities Network, 2019)

Next, socio-economic status. As with ethnicity, socio-economic factors’ impact on higher education participation are substantial. In the 2015 IFS study, it was found that pupils from the highest socio-economic quintile group are around three times more likely to go to university and around seven times more likely to go to a selective institution than those from the lowest

socio-economic quintile group. This later finding is perhaps in line with the tidal wave of criticism that Oxford and Cambridge have received in recent years over their supposed failure to diversify the socio-economic backgrounds of their students. Looking at these two groups together, in 2019 the National Education Opportunities Network’s (Neon) published their ‘Working Class Heroes’ report that concluded, “over 50% of universities admit less than 5% of white students from low participation neighbourhoods.” A telling statistic that sums up a serious problem.

Finally, gender. The IFS reported that “girls are significantly more likely to participate in higher education than boys, and the differences have remained roughly constant over the period covered by our data”. Girls are around 8% more likely than boys to go to university at age 18 or 19, and just under 2% more likely to attend a selective institution.

“Children from poor Indian, Pakistani, African and Caribbean families do much better than their white counterparts, despite similar levels of disadvantage”

So, the evidence seems unequivocal. White British working-class boys are seriously underperforming. But why? It is this question that has been depressingly under-researched.

Some put the trend down to low aspirations and bad perceptions of education in low income areas of the country, but poverty seems to fall short of taking all the blame. As we have said, and as others have pointed out, children from poor Indian, Pakistani, African and Caribbean families do much better than their white counterparts, despite similar levels of disadvantage.

White working-class boys in coastal towns have been recorded as performing even worse than their inland counterparts. But surely it isn’t the bracing British sea air that’s causing the country’s white lads to bail on university? Right?

Whether it be maritime exposure or low-income backgrounds, the problem is a real one. So how come it’s taken so long for mainstream media and our politicians to pick up on it? Is it that we have become tentative to call out injustices affecting only white people or has this just been another failure of our politicians to act quickly on problems affecting the young? Conservative MP Ben Bradley thinks it’s most likely the former.

“This issue is brushed under the carpet in our ‘woke’ society that can marginalise the issues of white males” (MP Ben Bradley, 2020)

On the 12th of February 2020 Bradley secured a debate in the House of Commons on ‘Educational Attainment for Working Class White Boys’ and in a Facebook post prior to the debate, he summarised his line of argument: “Statistically it’s these lads that are most likely to fall behind at school and even education leaders have said that this issue is brushed under the carpet in our ‘woke’ society that can marginalise the issues of white males. This under performance has become normal”. He went on, “we need to move beyond this kind of identity politics where it’s almost frowned upon to raise the plight of white lads.”

So perhaps, amid our frantic millennial ‘wokeness’ we have missed the genuine plight of white working-class boys. Or, maybe this social issue slipped under society’s collective radar for other reasons. Regardless, a group of young people in this country are suffering from a chronic lack of higher education opportunities and this, no matter your political alliance, is surely a call to action.