Third of White Disadvantaged Pupils Leave Primary School Unable to Read Fluently, Report Finds

1 min read

Grim new research shows that a third of white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in England leave primary school unable to read fluently. GB News has the story:

The study by Fischer Family Trust found that 33% of these children read below 90 words correct per minute – the threshold considered necessary for secure reading fluency.

By contrast, only 20% of their more affluent peers fall below this benchmark.

The findings indicate that these struggling readers possess literacy skills comparable to the average Year 3 pupil, leaving them three years behind where they should be.

The FFT research examined more than one million reading fluency assessments involving 231,000 pupils across 1,570 schools between September 2023 and June 2026.

White pupils from poorer households performed at a lower reading fluency throughout their primary years compared with both wealthier classmates and disadvantaged children from other ethnic backgrounds.

Just last week, an independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes delivered damning conclusions about the current “failing” system.

The Independent Inquiry into White Working Class Educational Outcomes ruled an overhaul of the education system was required to mend a broken system.

That landmark investigation determined the education system was “not set up to serve white working-class children and families”. …

Experts have warned that the pupils lacking adequate reading fluency will struggle to engage with the secondary curriculum, leading to disengagement and increased school absence.

Worth reading in full.

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6 Comments
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RTSC
RTSC
2 months ago

Why the picture of a white boy, smartly dressed, with well cut hair and who doesn’t look in the least bit “disadvantaged?”

They are talking about boys from the underclass ….. the welfare class ….. not the actual WORKING class and certainly not those from the lower middle class.

Unless the real problem is admitted (which is boys living in generational non-working households and the “fatherless boys produced by chavs) it can’t be addressed.

Gezza England
Gezza England
2 months ago
Reply to  RTSC

That probably covers the majority of it but there is a role for the evil of mobile phones and devices. Parents use them to keep their children quiet and can then be guilty of focussing on the trivia on their little screen when they should be interacting with their children.

Mrs.Croc
Mrs.Croc
2 months ago

Well, since none of the white indigenous population have the required characteristics in order to be seen by government as a worthy person, due respect and encouragement , I expect every white person will be functionally illiterate and innumerate in a short space of time.
They can then do the jobs entitled black people don’t want to do and get cursed for it; that is unless ai takes over and then there is always euthanasia, for the useless eaters.
what really gets me going is that everyone who disagrees with the current ideological regime is automatically declared a hard right bigot and cut out of the conversation; where as most people who object are just ordinary citizens who are fed up either being patronised and blamed for everything and just want it to stop.
its no wonder mental health is going down the toilet.
years of bring told you are the scum of the earth and responsible for all it’s problems and worse still; will be until the end of time has got to take it’s toll. Especially since this sort of mental abuse starts in nursery.
poor little children, they don’t stand a chance and boy do other races… Read more »

stewart
stewart
2 months ago

The cause of this problem is extremely easy to identify.

It is what happens when the main objective of those who run the education system is the political and ideological indoctrination of children, rather than teaching them fundamental skills.

The inherent socialism in our education system goes beyond just indoctrination through content. It is inherent also in the teaching methods that have been imposed on teachers for decades.

Things like “differentiation”, “emergent learning”, “big writing” and many more like these are infused with the “equality” virus, which in reality, as we all know, ends up meaning a degrading of standards.

And that’s before we even get to the concept of “special needs”, an excuse buffet for both teachers and students to shirk the extra effort that is sometimes required to achieve things that are worthwhile. Because some people having to try a little harder than others is somehow an intolerable unfairness which needs to be corrected by the equality brigade.

The whole thing is rotten to the core. Well, pretty much like every one of our institutions once it is taken over by socialists.

Ardandearg
Ardandearg
2 months ago

Part of the problem is that some parents don’t read to their children. We used to have an armchair which we called the reading chair because the arms were broad enough to have one child on each side as we read to them, so that they could follow the words. They could read before they started school. I remember when my sons were 7 and 10, we went to a parents’ night to talk to their teachers. One of the teachers said that when he tried to encourage parents of slow readers to read to their children and help them at home, he was told “Why should we? That’s your job.”

happycake78
happycake78
2 months ago
Reply to  Ardandearg

If that’s the attitude of parents, then they probably should not have children.

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