Tories accused of creating 'culture war' after Education Committee's 'white privilege' report

NOT HAPPY with a recent education committee report- that says white working-class pupils have been “let down” by England's education system- a Labour MP has accused Tories of trying to create a “culture war”.

Referring to "white privilege" – a term defined as white people benefiting from particular advantages in society – the report published on Tuesday (22) claims that its use may have contributed towards "systemic neglect of white disadvantaged communities" and the promotion of the idea in schools is both "divisive" and damaging to the children.

Reacting to the contents of report, Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside and a member of the committee herself, said she disowned the report and is not happy “about the whole section on white privilege”.

“The inquiry cherry picked data. I think they were trying to create a bit of a culture war,” Johnson said. 

Titled “The Forgotten: How White Working-class Pupils Have Been Let Down, and How to Change It”, the report by Conservative-dominated Commons' Education Committee also raised the issue of a lack of targeted support for disadvantaged white pupil.

Examining why poor white children underperform as compared with other disadvantaged groups, the report says that “an industry” has emerged to support disadvantaged non-white pupils but the same is not available to white pupils.  

Highlighting how white working-class pupils who live in poor areas are not eligible for free school meals, underperform to a greater extent than their similarly disadvantaged peers in other ethnic groups - particularly outside London. The report found that among five-year-olds, only 53 per cent of poor white British pupils meet the expected standard of development, one of the lowest percentages for any disadvantaged ethnic group.

And the proportion of poor white British pupils going to university is 16 per cent, the lowest of any ethnic group other than travelers. The report rejects the government’s view that poverty is solely to blame.

Committee chairman Robert Halfon said it is a "major social injustice" that so little has been done to address this gap and accused the government of "muddled thinking" in suggesting it is due to poverty.

"If you think it's about poverty, then it doesn't explain why most other ethnic groups do much better," Halfon said.

Meanwhile, a Department for Education spokesman said that the government is focused on levelling up opportunity so that “no young person is left behind”.