Nearly half of working class girls 'fear failure' at school

Almost half of girls from working class backgrounds live in fear of failing at school, a report out today found.

These worries are seriously affecting their chances of succeeding in their school work, a study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission concluded.

The report, which questioned 1,000 14 to 18-year-olds in England, found more than a third of young people (37%) were concerned about not succeeding at school.

This is equivalent to around 1.2 million teenagers, it said.

While just over a third of white working class boys fear failure (38%), this figure rises to 46% among white working class girls.

The study also revealed one in 10 teenagers (11%) say they will, or have considered, dropping out of school - the equivalent of around 350,000 young people across England.

A similar proportion say the subjects they are studying are not relevant to their lives - this rises to almost a third (31%) among Neets (those not in education, employment or training.)

One in five said they had not received individual career advice, and 94% said they would like better subject and career information.

The study also showed girls still have so-called "traditional" ideas about their future careers.

Regardless of their background, the top three jobs girls thought they would be working in were teaching, childcare or beauty.

But the study did reveal some signs of optimism.

The vast majority of those questioned (95%) said they felt they were doing very well, or fairly well at school.

Commission chairman Trevor Phillips said: "Why in 2009 do girls still assume that their careers lie in hairdressing rather than engineering? Why are young people being pushed down an academic route when they would do better in apprenticeships? We need to ensure that parents, schools and careers services challenge, rather than encourage such presumptions."

The commission's report called for the Government to introduce work experience and vocational options to students earlier in their school careers, and for colleges to consider offering vocational qualifications to teenagers who have no GCSEs as a way of getting them back into education.