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Working class pupils suffer in schools due to the pressure of targets exerted on teachers, according to new research.

The government has failed to ensure that the country's most underprivileged children receive the focus they require, instead introducing a target-driven culture for the education system as a whole, according to academics at Manchester University.

Co-author of the report Alan Dyson told the Times Educational Supplement: "There are interactions between race, gender and class issues. You have to look at the whole picture and help partnerships analyse what's going on to have a real impact."

Ethnic minorities are also suffering from the failure to allow teachers to focus on deprived pupils at the lower end of the attainment scale, added the report.

But the targets were defended to the publication by a spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, who stated that they allow "all pupils to achieve their full potential".

Only 15 per cent of white working class boys achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths according to figures published earlier this year, while 45 per cent of other boys gained the same qualifications.
 

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Last Edited Date : June 3 2008 9:52 am