Black children have started to close the gap in educational performance on their white classmates, as black African and black Caribbean boys improve their pass rate for five good GCSEs at twice the national average, government figures show.

The news will come as a huge relief to ministers and community leaders, who have been concerned for years at underachievement among black boys.

Previous research has shown that black pupils are more likely to be taught in lower ability sets than other pupils, often because of perceived behaviour problems rather than their ability. They are also less likely to be chosen to take part in extra activities for gifted children.

But the latest government figures also show that while the performance gap between ethnic groups is closing, social class divisions remain stubbornly wide, increasing as pupils progress throughout school. At age 11, 62 per cent of poor children of all races achieve the expected standards of their age in English, against 83 per cent of better-off pupils, creating a performance gap of 21 percentage points.

By the time students reach GCSE, the gap has widened to 28 per centage points. Only 21.1 per cent of poor children (those eligible for free school meals) gain five good GCSEs including English and maths, against 49 per cent of children from affluent homes.

Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, said that short and long-term trends alike suggested that the gap between minority and ethnic groups and the national average was closing as a result of government programmes. He conceded that more needed to be done to improve the results of children from poor backgrounds, but insisted that they were also improving faster than the average. The latest figures show that among black African boys the pass rate for five good GCSEs (at grades A* to C) rose from 45.2 to 50 per cent between 2006 and 2007. The proportion of black Caribbean boys getting five good GCSEs rose from 36.5 to 41.5 per cent.

The average was 59.5 per cent for all white pupils and 59.3 per cent for pupils of all races.

The results also show that more than 80 per cent of Chinese pupils and more than 70 per cent of Indian pupils achieved five good GCSEs this year. Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils also improved, but from a lower base, with 53 and 58.4 per cent respectively gaining five good GCSEs.

Girls continued to outperform boys at all levels and among all races.

Michael Gove, the Shadow Children’s Secretary, said that the figures highlighted the need for early intervention to get the basics right. “We should be closing the gap between the poorest and the rest in our schools, but it is widening, with those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds achieving less, and dropping out earlier,” he said.

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