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London:
Indian and Chinese students, who lag behind at age five, outshine
white British children in exams when they reach age 16, a study
has revealed.
The research suggested that peer pressure may influence how well
different groups work at their studies.
The researchers from University College London said the ethnic
minority pupils' achievement was an "amazing success story", Daily
Mail reported Wednesday.
Pupils who belong to ethnic
minorities struggle to grasp English when they start schooling but
they catch up with their white British counterparts and even
outperform them as their language skills improve.
"School systems are more efficient if they are more competitive,"
Harvard University’s Martin West, who co-wrote the study, was
quoted as saying.
Black and Asian pupils may benefit from greater attention, says
the study that was published in the Economic Journal.
Researchers poured over exam results
for nearly 500,000 pupils to carry out the study.
The researchers observed that in vocabulary and making patterns
tests, at the ages of three and five white British children
outshone their ethnic minority counterparts.
When the pupils were seven-years-old, all ethnic minority groups
with the exception of Chinese pupils were behind white British
youngsters in English and maths tests.
However, by the time compulsory schooling ended, Bangladeshi,
Pakistani and black pupils from outside the Caribbean had caught
up with their white British classmates, while Indian and Chinese
pupils had overtaken them, the media report said.
The improvements in language skills as ethnic minority pupils was
a huge reason for closing the gap.
The study said that among Indians, the share of native English
speakers was just one in five.
It also came out that ethnic minority parents chose better
secondary than primary schools, perhaps because they become more
adept at negotiating the school admissions system.
Christian Dustmann, one of the study’s authors and director of the
Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration, said: "We don’t
really understand the dynamics of peer groups within a school, and
how within a school individuals sort into different groups."
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