AFRICANGLOBE - Government data suggests persistent under-performance is on the way to becoming a thing of the past. According to recent Department for Education figures, the fortune of Black students has taken a turn for the better with a 3.5 per cent rise in passes to 58.1 per cent for the 2012/13 academic year. The increase, the biggest of any ethnic group, took Black pupils to just under the national average of 60.6 per cent, which also improved.