ABSTRACT
It is often asserted that 'Afro-Caribbean' or West-Indian' children 'underachieve' in British schools while 'Asian' children do well or even 'overachieve'. Such statements are misleading and are part and parcel of the social construction of 'race'. They are myths which are constantly sustained through social arrangements, processes, behaviour and discourse. Rather, minority ethnic pupils, in particular 'Asians' and especially'Caribbeans' axe unequally placed within the British education system. This educational inequality is itself a social construction, not however in the sense of being a socially generated and sustained myth, but in so far as it is largely a function and consequence of social arrangements, processes and behaviour.
