People should face uncomfortable facts on low achievement by ethnic minority pupils.

That's the view of MP Barry Sheerman, chairman of the House of Commons education select committee, who launched a new report in Bradford. The Huddersfield MP said he could not accept a "blame culture or an excuses culture" when it came to the vital issue of education.

He warned that racism in schools should be confronted, but not used as an excuse for Asian and black youngsters under-performing. The widespread habit of pupils missing several weeks of school for extended family trips to the Indian sub-continent was "very damaging indeed", he said, adding that more debate was needed within Muslim communities on the role of supplementary or 'mosque' schools which could get in the way of children's homework.

He was speaking at the launch of a report - Our Children, Their Education, Our Future - by the Bradford-based education charity QED. It was paid to work with community organisations across West Yorkshire to ask their views on how to improve education for their children.

Dr Mohammed Ali, chief executive of QED, said: "The seminars concluded the time was right to stop talking and start doing."

In Bradford in 2001, 33 per cent of students got at least five 'good' passes at GCSE but among Pakistanis the figure was 22 per cent. Figures for Bangladeshis show 28 per cent reached the same standard.

Meanwhile, Indian children outperformed white children, as 45 per cent of them got five passes.

Nationally, figures for 2002 show that Chinese pupils are the most successful overall, with 73 per cent gaining top grades, compared to 51 per cent for white, 45 per cent for Pakistani and only 30 per cent for black Caribbeans.

People who contributed to the report, including young people themselves, suggested that ethnic minority pupils were hampered by a lack of facilities at home for doing homework, an expectation of early marriage and low expectations among parents generally.

They called on parents to get more involved in school life.