Indian-origin students are among the best performing ethnic groups in England's education system, coming a close second to the Chinese.
Chinese pupils are best-performing ethnic group with 86 per cent passing national curriculum tests at the age of 11 while those of Indian origin come second with 85 per cent achieving the same standard.
But only 80 per cent of white British pupils manage to reach a similar level in the assessment.
Also children of Chinese origin outperformed every other British group in English by the age of 11, according to an ethnic breakdown of exam and test results released by The Department for Education and Skills.
And these figures include recent Chinese immigrants who do not have English as a first language.
The success of Chinese is carried through to GCSE level -- the standard high school exam in England and Wales taken at the age of 16 -- where 65.8 per cent of Chinese-origin pupils obtain five A*- to C-grade.
Pupils of Indian origin also outperform the white British with a 59.1 per cent pass rate compared to 44.3 per cent.
The figures are revealed in an analysis of last year's GCSE and national curriculum test results for pupils aged seven, 11 and 14.
Experts say the culture at home for families of Chinese and Indian origin families puts more emphasis on the importance of education.