The Participation of Ethnic Minority Pupils in Further and Higher Education

Abstract

Whether our main concern is with the principle of equality of opportunity or with maximizing national reserves of talent, the participation of ethnic minority children in further and higher education is a matter of some importance. This paper reports the findings of a preliminary enquiry into the nature and extent of such participation among all the fifth‐ and sixth‐form pupils in one of the Outer London Boroughs, in the summer and autumn of 1979. Beginning with the performance of fifth‐formers (divided into White, West Indian, Asian and ‘Other') in the public examinations, a first finding was that the levels achieved by West Indian pupils lagged behind those of all other pupils, even when controlled for social class. Nonetheless, it was White pupils who were well behind all other groups in staying on for a sixth‐form course, at each level of examination performance; while Asians were well ahead at all levels except the highest, where all ethnic minority groups were equally keen to stay on. Social class operated predictably, middle‐class fifth‐formers being less likely to leave school in all groups. But this still left Asian pupils from working‐class families well ahead of their peers, with about 80 per cent deciding to go into the sixth form. As to the destinations of fifth‐formers who decided to continue in full‐time education, most went into the first year of the sixth form at school. But West Indians were rather more likely to take up a course in further education, even among middle‐class pupils and high performers. As to the second‐year sixth formers, social class appeared to be a much less important variable in academic performance and decision‐making than ethnicity, and White pupils were far more likely to perform at a high level than pupils from ethnic minority groups. On the other hand, Asians and ‘Others’ were far more likely to remain in full‐time education at each level of performance at the end of the sixth‐form course; but Whites were more likely to go on into higher education, and they were also more likely to take up places in universities rather than polytechnics. Finally, many ethnic minority sixth‐formers continued with ‘other full time education’, although this may be partly a function of their lower levels of A‐level performance, for high performers were no more likely to choose this route than were Whites.