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Black boys achieve notoriously low examination results in British schools. In 2004 just 36 per cent of black African and black Caribbean pupils in England achieved five or more GCSEs at grade C or above. The national average was 52 per cent.

And while the 2005 results are just out they are not expected to be significantly different.

Although the poor educational attainment of black boys is well documented, the issue hit the headlines again earlier this year when Commission for Racial Equality chair Trevor Phillips became involved.


As part of a BBC documentary he visited a school in the US where some black boys were educated in separate classes from their peers, with positive results. When Phillips praised the initiative and questioned whether it could be replicated on this side of the pond his comments caused a great kerfuffle. One of the arguments against it happening here is that Britain is a less racially segregated society and merely importing the US model would create divisions where none now exist.

But there is no denying that something needs to be done. Black boys in British schools are consistently outperformed, even by girls from their own ethnic background.

To an extent, part of the problem is how schools operate. Mike Vance trained as a teacher but is now Caribbean achievement consultant for the Learning Trust, a private sector not-for-profit company that runs all education services in the London Borough of Hackney. He has found that black boys' attainment can be hindered by the classes in which they are placed at school. He says: "If a black boy is in a below-average set it creates a low expectation of what teachers think he can achieve and what the child himself thinks he can, so he aims low."

Henroy Green, public relations director at the National Black Boys Can Association, an organisation that aims to raise the achievements and aspirations of black boys, agrees. He says that the way schools relate to black boys can significantly limit their success and thus creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. "They expect black boys to fail."

Beyond the classroom, the street culture that is popular among black boys - where material wealth is valued more than educational achievement - can also serve as a barrier to success at school. Vance finds it frustrating that some black boys will only behave in the way epitomised by the culture of American black music. "This closes their minds rather than opens them, they are not allowing themselves to be enlightened and it works against everything I am trying to do."

Patrick Stewart has first-hand experience of the difficulties black boys can face in British schools. He came to the UK from Jamaica when he was 14 and now, 30 years later, is senior project manager at the Dalston Youth Project in east London.

Stewart says his clients' experiences often mirror his own. "Black boys are seen as aggressive and rude and they don't like authority and don't want to learn," he says. "Kids tell me their teachers don't understand them and they are quick to give up on them while they feel other kids, who aren't black, are given more of a chance." He recalls that, when he was at school, he was pushed into taking manual, rather than academic, subjects - a problem that remains today.

How a black boy's parents relate to school can also affect how well they get on. Stewart has come across parents who had a difficult time at school and who, in turn, have negatively influenced their children's attitudes.

This point is picked up by Muhammad Anwar, a professor of ethnic relations at the University of Warwick's centre for research in ethnic relations. "Parents' background and class are linked and if they are educated that can make a difference to how their children learn."
He adds that it is not fair to say that all black boys are failing at school, as clearly some are not. He adds that educational attainment can also depend on how long a family has been here. "The performance of some black boys is good and the reason for this is that they came to Britain for the education," he says.


But as to whether black boys should be educated separately from their peers to improve their performance, the resounding answer is no.

Stewart argues such a move will not benefit black boys as, living in a multicultural society, their future workplaces and colleges will not be "black only" environments. He adds that for those struggling in mainstream schooling, there is no guarantee things will improve in a classroom full of pupils with the same colour of skin and the same gender.

Vance agrees that educating black boys separately will not help them in the long run and will just add to their feelings of exclusion. Doing so would not only isolate them from girls, but also from their friends, which most do not want.

Green says that, even with the best of intentions, it would be divisive and lead to tensions between different communities. The young black boys with whom he works are clear they do not wish to take part in any such initiative. "They don't want to be seen as special in this way," he says.

Besides, a step on from black-only classes are black-only schools - a concept that Anwar does not favour even though some faith-based schools have proved successful. Having such schools would compound the feelings of exclusion that some black boys experience as future employers and educational institutions could start to view them suspiciously.

So, if educating black boys separately is a bad idea, how can schools engage with them and reverse the trend of poor educational achievement? Stewart says the key is to reach out to their parents and families and make it easier for them to become involved in their education. Parents' evenings could be made more welcoming through communicating with parents - who themselves may have had difficulties at school - about the purpose of the meetings.

In addition, Green recommends all teachers undergo cultural awareness training. Too often, black boys are shunted thoughtlessly into non-academic subjects due to the school's assumption that they will underachieve in other disciplines. Also, more effort could be made to understand parents' cultural background too. The need for this is underlined by the frequency with which Green's association is asked to mediate between schools and black parents because of the difficulties the two sides face when communicating with each other.

Schools and parents need to understand and accept they are involved in a partnership regarding the education of their children, Anwar says, and that it will fail unless everyone is on board. "If one side contributes while the other doesn't, it is the black boys' education that is impacted."

Teaching black boys in special classes would ultimately lead to their further exclusion; it is not the answer to improving how they learn and the number of exams they pass. Instead, the education system must work alongside parents, pupils and its other partners to nurture, not alienate, all vulnerable children.

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