These include the level of parental education, choice of school, the time spent studying after school, and higher aspirations.
East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea consistently top league tables produced by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
However, immigrant students from these countries also do consistently well in Western education systems. In England’s state schools, for example, 78 per cent of Chinese children got at least five A* to C GCSE grades compared to the national average of 60 per cent according to the latest figures. This is the highest score of any ethnic group.
Research by Dr John Jerrim, a reader in educational and social statistics at the Institute of Education in London, set out to discover the reasons behind this success. He has concluded that there is no “silver bullet”, but a number of factors.
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