Lord Sewell has warned that the education system is overlooking white British children, arguing that the focus on race and ethnicity has obscured the struggles faced by working-class pupils.
Speaking to GB News, the former chairman of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities said: “The big elephant in the room is the word white.”
“Somehow in our consciousness, we don't associate things that are to do with failure or to do with disadvantage... with white children,” he said.
Lord Sewell stressed that the children in question were not from privileged backgrounds.
“We're not talking about boys from Eton here. These are kids who are on free school meals,” he said.
“These are disadvantaged kids, working class kids, difficult backgrounds. And they are the worst performers in the education system.”
He argued that changing performance across groups should prompt a rethink of where resources are directed.
Lord Sewell said that “most attention” has been placed on black Caribbean pupils who are now “performing better than the white working class group.”
“And the African group is even better than that. And then you've got the other ethnic minorities way ahead.”
He questioned why disadvantaged white British pupils had not received the same level of attention.
“Why is it that for years we haven't decided to put our resources to think more smartly about a group, the majority group that is failing?”, he asked.
Lord Sewell suggested that politics and identity had played a role in the lack of focus.
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“I would suggest to you that, in fact, this is political. I have no doubt about it in my head,” he said.
Lord Sewell argued that policymakers should focus on the geographical areas where disadvantaged white children are struggling rather than necessarily approaching the problem through race.
“Failure is to do with geography, and particularly where white working class people are living,” the race report chief said.
“We've got to then put our resources and our attention for that group. Nobody wanted to know universities, nobody. They were just the overlooked group.”
He also backed targeted programmes for struggling communities, arguing that these schemes didn't need to be framed around ethnicity.
“You don't even have to call it race. You can find an area that... is failing.”
“We know the areas in Nottingham, East Nottingham that are failing. We know the areas in Yorkshire, we know where they are. So just call it out in terms of the geography.”
Lord Sewell said action was needed to prevent disadvantaged pupils from being left behind.“We can't leave these children adrift,” he said.
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