A new research project in Bradford aims to find out why Bangladeshi and Pakistani children under-achieve in school.

Figures for 1997 show great differences in the GCSE performance of Bradford children from different ethnic backgrounds.

The highest achievers - with 37.5 per cent of children gaining five or more A-C grades - are those of Indian origin.

The lowest achievers were children from the Afro-Caribbean community (8.3 per cent); Pakistani children (17.1 per cent) and Bangladeshis (17.8 per cent).

Among white children, 28 per cent got five or more A-C grades.

Former classroom assistant Nur Jahan, of the Porishad Bangladeshi community centre in Manningham, has already spent two years researching the problem, and the new project builds on her work.

She said. "There was a lack of awareness from teachers, who had low expectations of their ethnic minority students. When ethnic minority parents went into school, perhaps to ask why their child was not achieving, teachers would get defensive.

"Parents from Bangladesh and Pakistan are often from agricultural backgrounds and are illiterate, they don't understand the school set up."

The project, which has received £100,000 funding from the Manningham and Girlington Single Regeneration Budget partnership, plans to work closely with schools and parents - and for the first time, involve the pupils themselves.

Much of the work undertaken by the four project workers, includinmg Shazia Khan, will be to research the problem and collect new statistics.

Then they will be working with schools and pupils to develop new initiatives to combat the inequality.

Eventually they hope to develop models of good practice for the district. Pupils will be tested before and after new initiatives are tried, to gauge their success.

Ishtiaq Ahmed, one of the project workers, said: "We are not trying to embarrass schools. We want to work with them to improve children's performance."

Spring Wood Primary School and Belle Vue Girls and Boys Grammar Schools are backing the scheme.

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