The demonisation of white working class boys is the real ‘national disgrace'

Telegraph

2 days ago

I was a little surprised to read Bridget Phillipson's description of the underperformance of white working class children at A-level as a 'national disgrace'.
Is this the same Education Secretary who pulled the plug on a joint project by Eton and Star Academies to open a chain of free school sixth forms in some of our most deprived Northern cities to address precisely this issue?
I'm afraid it is. To be fair to Phillipson, this is a problem she inherited, even if she has frustrated efforts to solve it. The Institute of Fiscal Studies drew attention to it 10 years ago, pointing out that white British pupils in the lowest socio-economic quintile were less likely to go to university than any other ethnic group.
According to the Department for Education's latest figures, a lower percentage of white British pupils eligible for free school meals passed English and Maths GCSE at grade 4 or above than any other demographic group, save for 'Gypsy/Roma' and 'Irish traveller'.
The causes of this are complex, but poverty isn't the whole of the story. After all, the IFS also found that Chinese pupils in the lowest socio-economic quintile are, on average, more than 10 per cent more likely to go to university than White British pupils in the highest socio-economic quintile.
Another factor, as Miriam Cates has pointed out, is that the vast majority of white British children in the bottom socio-economic quintile are being brought up in single-parent households, with only 12 per cent of their parents married and nine per cent cohabiting.
But that, too, is an incomplete explanation. According to the Office of National Statistics, a higher percentage of African-Caribbean households in England and Wales are made up of lone parents with dependent children than white British households. Yet black Caribbean children eligible for free school meals outperform their white British counterparts.
Perhaps the reason poor white students are struggling is because schools don't celebrate their identity, unlike almost every other ethnic group. Schools plaster the walls with pictures of high-achieving black Britons during Black History Month and bend over backwards to recognise the religious festivals of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. But most schools don't do anything to mark St George's Day.
Indeed, when a school in Warwickshire invited pupils to wear 'traditional cultural dress' to celebrate the 'rich diversity of our community', it was so appalled when a 12 year-old white girl turned up in a Union Jack dress it sent her home.
Insofar as schools do acknowledge the ethnicity of white British children, it's to lecture them about 'privilege' and the shameful role their ancestors played in the transatlantic slave trade.
The stark figures about the under-achievement of white children in the bottom socio-economic quintile obscure an even bleaker story about the gap between male and female students in this demographic.
In England, 40 per cent of white British girls eligible for free school meals got grade 4 or above in maths and English last year, compared to 38 per cent of boys. When it comes to university, just 14.5 per cent of poor white boys started higher education in 2021-22, compared to 24.4 per cent of poor white girls.
No doubt that's partly due to the demonisation of white working class boys in schools, with the Netflix series Adolescence being the latest salvo in this constant assault on 'toxic masculinity'. But Bridget Phillipson is part of the problem, not the solution. Last month, the Education Secretary unveiled new Relationship, Sex and Health Education guidance designed to counter 'the scourge of misogyny'.
'Before I was elected to Parliament, I managed a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence, so I have seen first-hand the devastating impact when we don't foster healthy attitudes from the youngest age,' she said. For 'healthy attitudes' read finger-wagging condemnation of white working class male culture, from football fandom to boxing.
So, what's the solution? It isn't the introduction of bursaries for poor white boys. When a former pupil of Winchester and Dulwich College offered them a million pounds to fund scholarships for this demographic, both said no. Apparently, it's perfectly acceptable for Stormzy to set up a bursary for black students to attend Cambridge, but the equivalent for white boys is 'racist'.
Perhaps the answer is to de-wokify our schools and – to paraphrase Martin Luther King – judge all children by the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin or the nature of their genitalia. Looking at the data, it's hard not to conclude that white working class boys are victims of the racial and sexual politics that have infected our entire education sector. Its capture by radical progressive ideology is the real 'national disgrace', but don't expect this Government to do anything about that.