... within 'South Asian.' When the stated 49% of Asian students receiving 5 or more A*- C grades (government statistics 2000 published in the Guardian newspaper) is actually broken down, it is seen that 62% of students of Indian origin received 5 or more A*- C grades whereas by contrast only 30 % of students of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin gained the same. Reasons of national history and social class can account for these differences. The contemporary divisions and formation of the states of Pakistan followed by Bangladesh and therefore the migration patterns to Britain could have lead to differences in the social classes of the groups and therefore can be counted as direct reasons for the achievement inequalities. D. Smith and S. Tomlinson's study ' The School Effect' (1989) concluded that the differences between ethnic groups, in terms of exam results 'are small' but by comparison the differences between classes are ...

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