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Black students half as likely as white peers to get English Baccalaureate
15 June 2011
Black Caribbean students are half as likely as white British students to achieve the new English Baccalaureate benchmark in their GCSEs, analysis by Runnymede and the Institute of Education has found.
The new measurement, recently introduced for schools in England, requires pupils to achieve A* - C grades in maths; English; two science subjects; a foreign language; and either history or geography. Only 6.8 per cent of black Caribbean students taking their GCSEs in 2010 would have met these requirements, compared to 15.4 per cent of white British students.
Previously, the benchmark was 5 A* - C grades in maths, English and three other unspecified subjects, which 39.4 per cent of black Caribbean students achieved in 2009, the last time these figures were released.
The analysis also found that while 15.4 per cent of white British pupils achieved the English Baccalaureate benchmark in 2010, the figures for many minority ethnic groups were far lower:
- 8.5 per cent for mixed race (white and black Caribbean) students
- 9.3% per cent Bangladeshi students
- 10.3% per cent Pakistani students
- 10.4% per cent black African students
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