ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to give an overview of the largest minority ethnic groups living in the United Kingdom i.e. West Indian, Indian and Pakistani. It realizes the constrictions inherent in such a task but would anticipate that the reader who wishes to pursue further study will find the references useful. The chapter hopes it has been of some help to identify some of the factors appertaining to the three minority ethnic groups which make them distinct from indigenous pupils and which could possibly affect their learning in British schools. The West Indians constitute the largest minority ethnic group in the United Kingdom. Most of them are unskilled or semi-skilled workers in the transport industry and building trades. The West Indian economy is largely dependent on agriculture, and although industrialization has begun in Jamaica and Trinidad, their urban/rural population ratios are relatively small. Like the West Indian system, the Indian educational system resembles the British one.
