[Socialism Today, No 12, October 1996, p. 33]
Recent research on the achievements of ethnic minority pupils, by David Gillborn and Caroline Gipps. HMSO, 1996, £9-95. Reviewed by Andrea Enisuoh.
The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) have released their review: Recent Research into the Achievements of Ethnic Minority Pupils. Spanning a period of major upheavals in the education system, the report insists that there has been a general improvement in the educational achievements of ethnic minorities. Asian students are heralded as examples of this; Indian students in several cities are exceeding the achievement levels of their white counterparts.
The most damning findings relate to the achievement levels of African-Caribbean boys, who constantly fall behind white and Asian students. From primary through to secondary school they are ‘underachieving’.
One reason for this is the relationship between African-Caribbean boys and their teachers. Exclusion is used with alarming frequency: African-Caribbean pupils are six times more likely to be expelled from school than white pupils. This can have a long lasting effect: two out of every three pupils excluded never return to mainstream education.
There does appear to be a high degree of conflict between African-Caribbean pupils and white teachers in the classroom. Pupils are often banded in sets below their ability due to perceived behavioural problems. They are, the report suggests, often seen as confrontational. Asian students also are not exempt from negative stereotyping. They are generally viewed as passive, and in many cases where language difficulties may be the problem, documented as having learning difficulties.
Yet Black and Asian students are three times more likely than white students to ‘stay on’ in education after secondary school. The review is vague on the reasons for this. Higher motivation and parental support is suggested and, perhaps more significantly, higher rates of unemployment and discrimination in the jobs market.
Discrimination in university admissions is also highlighted. While young people from ethnic minority groups account for proportionally more applications into higher education, Black Caribbean and Pakistani applicants in particular have less chance of admission.
‘There does appear to be a high degree of conflict between African-Caribbean students and white teachers’
Ethnicity, however, cannot be the only criteria used to analyse achievement levels, a point that the report appears to accept: social class is strongly associated with achievement regardless of gender and or ethnic origin: whatever the pupils’ gender or ethnic origin those from higher social class backgrounds do better than average”. For example, Indian pupils who consistently out perform other ethnic groups have the largest proportion of parents in non-manual occupations; in comparison African- Caribbeans appear to be less well qualified and work more often in manual occupations.
Tower Hamlets is highlighted for its ‘marked improvement’ in the education of ethnic minorities. The borough, which houses nearly a quarter of Bangladeshi children of compulsory school age, now sees Bangladeshi pupils achieving higher education scores than any other group there. Yet the report’s claim that these findings indicate an ability for Bangladeshi pupils to transcend class barriers, distorts the reality.
Overcrowding is worse than anywhere else in the country: 11.1% of households have more than one person per room – five times the national rate. In a recent council commissioned survey 86% of pupils named housing as their biggest family problem. Six out of ten pupils in Tower Hamlets speak a home language other than English, thus requiring extra language support. However the Section 11 funding that provides the extra staff for this is under constant threat.
Overall, Tower Hamlets remains in the bottom ten in education league tables – an example of how social conditions and educational cutbacks combined continue to fail all working class pupils.
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