Here's the reason why white working-class pupils are struggling: the 'F-word' people ignore

It’s common knowledge in British politics that white working-class pupils are falling behind.

Even Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson talks about it – a stance that parts of the left have too often been reluctant to take.

Today’s report from the Independent Inquiry into White Working-Class Educational Outcomes is a welcome one, and it shows how urgent the issue is.

Only one third of white pupils on Free School Meals (FSM) get a grade four in English and Maths GCSE, compared to 72 per cent for non-FSM pupils.

Only half of white FSM five-year-olds achieve a good level of development, while four in ten are persistently absent from school.

The report acknowledges a range of reasons for this underachievement, citing not just poverty but also “place, culture and educational experience".

But here lies the gaping hole in the report – the ‘F-word’ that we are so prone to ignore – Family.

It’s mentioned 19 times. The report knows it’s an issue. In fact, they go as far as saying that “the family a child is born into is still the greatest predictor of their success”.

Yet there is strikingly little on how family structure might shape attainment, attendance, or attitudes towards education.

Previous analysis from the Centre for Social Justice shows the vast differences between the families of the white working-class communities and those of the non-white working class.

Just two in ten poor white children live with married parents, but this rises to almost six in ten among poor children in non-white families.

Similarly, data from 2021 showed that the partnership gap - which measures families who are both married and cohabiting - rests between 96 per cent for the top fifth of income to just 28 per cent in the bottom fifth.

Family background is a central predictor of future life chances.

It is right then that the report calls for expanded family hubs and clearer parent-school contracts, for example.

But despite saying that we need to see “education as a shared endeavour between schools and families”, it is left to others to confront the crisis of family instability in white working-class communities head-on.

We need to do much more to buttress family stability by reforming the tax and benefit system for couples, protecting marriage, and placing fatherhood and relationship support into antenatal classes.

The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov stated: “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.”

But by the end, it seemed that the family ballistic had yet to blow.

Ultimately, we do an injustice to those underserved pupils that we long to uplift if we fail to acknowledge the importance of strong families and stable homes.