Oral Answers to Questions

Diane Abbott Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Question 6 has been withdrawn.

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

7. Whether he is taking steps to tackle educational underachievement of black children.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Kit Malthouse)]

We are focused on raising educational standards for all pupils, irrespective of their ethnicity.

[Ms Abbott]

The Government will be aware that, although many ethnic minority groups have narrowed the gap with white pupils, and in some cases overtaken them, some groups continue to underachieve, particularly black Caribbean boys. At a time when there are so many skills shortages, what is the Secretary of State doing to ensure all our pupils achieve their potential?

[Kit Malthouse]

I am pleased to say that the right hon. Lady is right and a number of minority groups now outperform the average, not least the largest group of the black community, those who would identify themselves as black African, who outperform the average in a number of ways. She is right, however, that there is underperformance by a number of black Caribbean pupils, mainly boys, and I certainly undertake to her to try to investigate why. However, I am sure she would agree that although external factors such as disadvantage can influence educational outcomes, the standard of the school and of the teaching that those pupils receive can often overcome many of those barriers. If she has not already done so, I urge her to visit the Michaela Community School in Wembley, which I visited two weeks ago and which is seeing extraordinary results from a very mixed and diverse community, in a very challenged part of London.