Diversity fails working-class Britons

White teenagers are less likely to go to university than school-leavers from other ethnic groups - even with the same A-level results, according to official figures. The gap is widest among male teenagers from poor backgrounds, raising fresh fears that working class boys are becoming the education "underclass" in England. According to a Government report, just over one-in-20 white boys from poor homes goes on to university. This compares to 66% of Indian girls and 65% of young women from Chinese families. An analysis published by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said the rise in the number of women going to university over the last 10 or 20 years "had made the performance of males look relatively dismal". The report said many working class white boys dropped out of education at the earliest opportunity, aged 16. Young white men from poor homes were eight and a half times less likely to go to university than ethnic minority women from middle-class families. Among some ethnic groups, university participation rates were even higher. Overall, 58% of men from Indian backgrounds and 66% of women go on to university. Among Chinese families, 60% of boys and 65% of women go to university. Black Caribbean boys were the only group less likely to go to university than white boys. The Conservatives said the disclosure proved that Labour was failing pupils from poor homes.