April 28 2011Dear Sir,I read with interest the April 25 2011 article in the Financial Times online under the byline of Chris Crook, their education correspondent. As many of you may know, the Financial Times is the newspaper of choice among the financial and political elite of London, New York and Washington DC. Hence I assume the article addressed their concerns about the future direction of their country, in this case the United Kingdom.The article headline that caught my eye was “Poor white pupils lag behind black peers” and the first line of the article states “White schoolchildren in Britain’s poorest communities lag behind peers who are black or of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, a Financial Times analysis of more than 3m sets of exam results reveals.” The underlines are added and it is not clear from the newspaper report whether this analysis is supported by that of sophisticated educational experts. It is clear that they are comparing one set of poor students to other sets of poor students.In any case, the article goes on to state that poor white students do less well on average than students for whom English is a second language. This article is relevant to Bermuda because it identifies the issue of the extent to which poor academic performance is influenced by relative wealth/poverty and by the immigrant status of students. The report clearly indicates that underperformance is not directly influenced by race, a myth that is widely accepted in Bermuda where race is a strong correlate of relative poverty. It suggests also that immigrant students tend to be more highly motivated than indigenous students, another factor that the local public seems not to understand.All of the above does not change the fact that we have to work hard to improve our education system but it suggests to me that our system is not in as dire straits as local politicians and businessmen suggest. Similar problems exist worldwide. The article goes on to indicate that poor white students are doing best in reducing the attainment gap in London, a city in which the former Labour Government made the greatest investment for reform of education. In terms of our own country it appears to me that, under pressure from the financial community, we are hurrying to impose solutions in search of a problem. Instead we should be incorporating the considered points of view from professionals throughout the education system, along with the educational output desires of business, in order to arrive at a plan that is sustainable and likely to result in success for students at all levels of achievement.JT CHRISTOPHERWarwick