UK: Christian and atheist children least likely to go to university

[rug]

A study of more than 13,000 young people found that 77 per cent of those who described themself as Hindu at the age of 15 went on to higher education, compared with 45 per cent of Christians.

Some 63 per cent of Sikh teenagers and 53 per cent of Muslims went on to study at university, but just 32 per cent of those who had no religion at 15 undertook higher education.

The figures, produced by UK National Statistics for the Department for Education, add to a body of research which shows British white working-class pupils perform worse at school and are less likely to go to university than their Asian counterparts.

The Catholic Education Service said there were several factors unrelated to religion why Christians were the worst-performing religion in the survey.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8655201/Christian-and-atheist-children-least-likely-to-go-to-university.html

[TexDevilDog]

1. Some cultures ingrain in their children hard work and demand excellence from them

[Kceres]

2. Surprises me about atheist children, actually.

[tortoise1956]

3. Sorry, I have an issue with this study

Part of my job includes working with statistics and probabilities (the part I really hate). I know from personal experience that studies can be set up to achieve desired results. I ch doubt that religion, or the lack of it, was the main determining factor in the numbers quoted in this study. It's much more likely, as another post said, that cultural and family mores were responsible for the results.

[struggle4progress]

4. As a general rule, I think that whatever one sees in The Telegraph, can be safely ignored

If I had to make a guess, I'd guess the study actually showed that immigrants are often more highly motivated than non-immigrants -- which isn't exactly news

[LeftishBrit]

6. You are right about the Torygraph; they are getting worse and worse!

[LeftishBrit]

5. Translation:

British kids of Indian origin are more likely to go to university than many other ethnic groups.

Religion has little or nothing to do with it.

[frogmarch]

7. I wonder if the pollsters

took into account the fact that some Hindus are atheists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism

Atheism (Sanskrit: nir-īśvara-vāda, lit. "statement of no Lord", "doctrine of godlessness") or disbelief in God or gods has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the orthodox and heterodox streams of Hindu philosophies.<1><2> Generally, atheism is valid in Hinduism, but the path of the atheist is viewed as very difficult to follow in matters of spirituality.<3> Their day-to-day lifestyle will be almost similar to most Hindu theists but they do not accept the existence of God. They may adhere to Hindu practices and traditions.

[Vehl]

8. I'm an Atheist Hindu

However we term ourselves Hindu's. This is mainly because of the fact that Atheism has always been one of the philosophical schools of Hinduism. At least 50% of the Hindus who subscribe to the non-dualistic philosophies (Advaita Vedanta) are Atheists...would probably put the number around at least 50 Million or so.

PS: I'm amused every time Polls/News articles consider Hindusim/Buddhism to be "religions"...they are not in the Abrahmic sense.