Nearly half the students who leave education with no or limited qualifications are white British males, research has revealed.

The study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that three-quarters of low achievers in English schools are white British students and boys outnumber girls as poor performers by three to two.

White pupils were found to do worse than children from other ethnic groups with similar economic backgrounds and they were also more likely to do persistently badly at school, the study said.

If they start failing to achieve in primary school they are more likely than others to still be in the lowest categories of achievement at the end of secondary school.

The research said Chinese and Indian pupils are the most successful at avoiding low achievement.

Afro-Caribbean students are the least successful, although their results have been improving faster than the national average, and they do no worse than white British pupils from similar economic backgrounds.

The research, which aimed to identify the reasons why tens of thousands of students in England leave school each year with no or few qualifications at 16, said poor reading and writing scores at primary school were strongly associated with doing badly later on.

But not speaking English at home was only a short-term handicap, with African and Asian students commonly recovering from the problems it poses by secondary school.

Most low achievers come from disadvantaged backgrounds, commonly in urban areas, the Tackling Low Educational Achievement report found.

They are more likely to attend worse-performing secondary schools which can hamper their progress - particularly in the case of ethnic minority students and those with special needs.

Around 5 per cent of state school children achieve no passes at all in GCSEs or GNVQs, while around 25 per cent obtain nothing better than a D grade. They are at risk from unemployment of unemployment, or even falling into low-level crime.