Adequate funding must be available for those local education
authorities with high numbers of pupils from minority ethnic groups.
Without this commitment, schools cannot succeed in giving all pupils
an equal chance of achieving their full potential.
Ethnic groups in Britain face social and economic exclusion
through low educational attainment.
Inequalities of attainment in GCSE examinations place many minority ethnic
pupils in a disadvantaged position in the youth education, labour, and training
markets, and increase the likelihood of social and economic exclusion in later
life1
∙ All ethnic groups can achieve good results. Recent research shows that
every one of the six principal minority ethnic groups achieves higher levels
of attainment than the other groups in at least one local education
authority in the country.
∙ All pupils, whatever their ethnic group, are achieving better results than
ever before.
∙ However, African-Carribean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils are still
markedly less likely to attain five higher grade GCSEs than their White or
Indian peers. The gap is bigger now than a decade ago.
Certain ethnic groups are more likely to face exclusion from school
∙ Educating children who have been excluded from mainstream schooling
costs about four times as much as educating them within the mainstream
system.
∙ School exclusion rates vary across ethnic groups:
- 1.5 in every 1000 White pupils are excluded
- 2.1 in every 1000 Black African pupils are excluded
- 4.9 in every 1000 Black Other pupils are excluded
- 5.8 in every 1000 Black Caribbean pupils are excluded
Research has indicated that the social background of the pupil can affect educational achievement:
∙It has been found that two thirds of boys from higher-class backgrounds were accepted into selective secondary schools, whilst just one quarter of working class boys were…'Grammar schools continued to recruit a disproportionately high percentage of their intake from non-manual backgrounds’ (Smith and Noble, 1995).
∙According to Craft, context is an important aspect of this area. The 'influence of neighbourhood or the school play an important part'. Working class pupils in larger suburbs 'might be subject to significantly different home environmental pressures than those in the small towns and larger cities'
∙Even at equal ability levels children deemed to be working-class are 'far more likely than middle class children to deteriorate in performance and to leave school at the earliest possible age' (Craft, 1970, p4).
∙The richest third of the population have two thirds of the university places.
∙The percentage of pupils getting five or more GCSEs at grades A-C is also an indicator: Grammar 84.7%; Independent 80.7%; Comprehensive 28.7%.
∙There are 'strong and continuing links between the selection procedures and social background' (Smith and Noble, 1995).
