Education Committee says poor white children have been failed by the education system

White working class pupils have been failed by decades of neglect in England’s education system according to a report just published by MPs.

The Education Select Committee says poorer white children underachieve and have been “let down and neglected”.

It says use of the term “white privilege”, suggesting white pupils are at an advantage, is the “opposite” of the reality for poor white pupils.

The committee’s chairman, Robert Halfon, accuses the government of “muddled thinking” in failing to target support at disadvantaged white pupils  who underachieve from early years through to GCSEs, A-levels and university entry. He warned that poorer white children had fallen behind at every step.

Halfon described it as a “major social injustice” and a “scandal” that so little attention had been paid to how white pupils on free school meals underachieved compared with free school meals pupils from the majority of other ethnic groups.

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