'Tiger Mother' phenomenon justified by 'better exam results'

The new parenting phenomenon known as the 'Tiger Mother' may actually result in improved childhood performance at exams, according to the Financial Times.

In the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Yale law professor Amy Chua takes a light-hearted look at the attitudes towards child-rearing that are currently prevailing in China.

Tiger Mothers are the ones who employ a very strict regime and make it clear to their children that failure is not an option.

Now, research by the FT suggests that this phenomenon could be why even the poorest Chinese pupils appear to perform better in exams than British children.

The newspaper highlighted the fact that the Chinese are the best-performing ethnic group in England's schools, with a typical Chinese British child getting two more GCSE A* passes than the average.

In terms of the British Chinese children from the poorest fifth of households, results at the age of 16 tend to be better than those of white British children from among the richest households in the country.

This comes as new figures from the Independent School Council indicate that 38 per cent of foreign children in UK private schools are from Hong Kong, a larger proportion than those from across all of Europe combined.

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