It may take teachers from the Caribbean to turn around the academic performance of Caribbean boys in Britain. That suggestion comes from British Labour Party MP Dianne Abbott, amidst renewed debate about the poor grades of black boys in UK schools. Her comments follow a suggestion by Trevor Phillips, the chairman of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality, that the British government should consider educating black boys in separate classes from their white peers in order to help them perform better. " If the only way to break through the wall of attitude that surrounds black boys is to teach them separately for some subjects,then we should be ready for that," Phillips, whose parents are from Guyana, told the BBC. But while Dianne Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in London, does not entirely agree with the CRE head, she nevertheless feels that the matter warrants wide debate. "I'm not sure that Trevor Phillips' suggestion is the answer", she told BBC Caribbean Radio, "but it's good that he's drawing attention to this long-standing problem." She argues that it's the British school system that's failing Caribbean boys. Miss Abbott, who has been at the forefront of a series of annual conferences on issues affecting black youth in the UK, says part of the problem is down to "institutional racism in the school system ... with some teachers having stereotypical ideas of black children and what they can be expected to achieve." Bring in Caribbean teachers One way of surmounting the problem of under-achieving Caribbean boys in UK schools the Labour MP suggests is to recruit teachers from the Caribbean. "We need to look at working with the Caribbean in terms of teachers from the Caribbean coming to teach in British schools." She however acknowledges that 'asset-stripping' Caribbean schools could be a problem as already there's been an outcry over the 'brain-drain' of the region's teachers to the UK and US. "There ought to be ways to bring Caribbean teachers into British schools on secondment to share best practices and knowledge." The issue of the poor performance of some Caribbean boys and how best to improve their failing grades has caused widespread debate throught the UK. Making the grade The British Department for Education and Skills reports that black teenagers continue to lag far behind their white classmates at the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), although there were signs the gap was narrowing. The GCSE is the equivalent of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams. It's most recent figures show that 47.4 percent of white boys obtained five or more grades A plus to C at the GCSE and equivalent, compared to 31.9 percent for black boys. Black Caribbean boys did less well at 27.3 percent. Their African peers scored 37.3 percent. Boys of Indian and Chinese backgrounds topped the list of male pupils, with some 69.5 of Chinese and 61.6 percent of Indians making the grade. Pakistani boys trailed at 38.8 percent. Meanwhile, some 45.9 percent of all black girls earned five or more top GCSE grades. The national average for all boys was 46.8 percent, and 51.9 percent for girls. A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said progress was being made and ethnic minorities were "closing the gap", but there was "no room for complacency". Reprinted from bbccaribbean.com