Indians better than British students, even in English!

It's official. Indian students are better than their British counterparts in schools, even in subjects like English.

Government figures from the department for children, schools and families have revealed Indian and Chinese students get top grades than British children in every school subject at the secondary examination.

31% of Indian students and 55% of Chinese pupils who took General Certificate of School Education exams last year achieved an A, according to the new figures released.

Among white British pupils the figure was 16%. For black African pupils it was 14%, for Pakistani 13% and black Caribbean 8%, leading newspaper the Daily Mail reported.

The figures also show that, as well as forging ahead in maths, Indian and Chinese pupils outperform white British pupils in English.

The Chinese pupils were most likely to get As, with 29% getting the top mark in English, compared with 21% of Indians, 15% of white British, 11% of black Africans and 9% of Pakistanis.

Significant differences in achievement are also seen in geography, history, chemistry, biology, physics, French and religious education, the statistics have revealed.

Bristol University researchers suggested the attainment differences were down to contrasting attitudes to education between ethnic minority and white communities.

Dr Deborah Wilson pointed to high aspirations among immigrant communities, who "almost by definition" are "keen to get on in life". "With qualifications linked to social progress, it makes sense to focus particular effort at that point," she said.