Memorandum submitted by the National Association
of Educational Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (NAEIAC)
1. The National Association of Educational
Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants wishes to submit the following
comments to the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee
inquiry into Pupil Achievement in Secondary Education. NAEIAC,
as the recognised professional body and trade union for educational
inspectors, advisers and consultants, is firmly committed to the
belief that standards and quality of education can be improved
through the intervention of professional inspection, advice, support,
training and leadership.
SUMMARY OF
SUBMISSION
2. Our submission may be summarised as follows:
— understanding and awareness of Minority
Ethnic pupils within our schools too often remain at low levels;
— stereotyping, prejudice and racism
in schools are insufficiently challenged;
— appropriate role models and support
for Minority Ethnic staff are often lacking;
— local partnerships with parents and
communities are important and need to be encouraged;
— diversity should be better acknowledged
and celebrated;
— mainstream LEA initiatives and minority
ethnic issues should be better integrated; and
— effective leadership, management
and training are essential to progress.
UNDERSTANDING AND
AWARENESS OF
MINORITY ETHNIC
PUPILS
3. The curriculum in most schools is still
predominantly "white" and monocultural and does not
sufficiently reflect the cultural diversity of surrounding populations.
White pupils are not yet adequately taught to live in a multi-
ethnic society, given that, while a few schools are truly "all
white", the surrounding community is usually multi racial.
The contributions of minority ethnic people are too often invisible.
There is usually little reference to their culture or history.
There is inadequate acknowledgement of minority ethnic experience
in British society, or the history of their migration and settlement.
In addition, there are distinct pressures on minority ethnic pupils
and staff in all schools. Often, this means that they tend to
hide any experience of inequality so as not to draw attention
to themselves. In the recent ethnic monitoring exercise carried
out with all schools, many Traveller pupils stated their ethnicity
to be "White-UK" rather than "Traveller" as
this might render them more visible.
4. Ofsted inspectors have varying levels
of expertise in these matters. Minority ethnic issues may be seen
as additional rather than integral and mainstream to an inspection.
If standards overall at a school are low, the "race"
and cultural diversity issues may be viewed as of somewhat lesser
importance. Reports on schools in "challenging circumstances"
also tend to contain few references to the promotion of diversity.
STEREOTYPING, PREJUDICE
AND RACISM
IN SCHOOLS
5. While all schools should now have race
equality policies in accordance with the Race Relations (Amendment)
Act 2000, few yet have related Action Plans that are monitored
for implementation and impact. Whole School Improvement Plans
rarely have clear-cut objectives and targets for initiatives designed
to improve the participation and achievement of minority ethnic
pupils
6. Myths, stereotypes and misconception
can still go unchallenged. Racial harassment is sometimes seen
as trivial and racist name-calling may still be seen as harmless,
as pupils do not understand what they are saying. Consequently,
racial incidents are not always recorded and reported.
7. Black pupils often start compulsory schooling
with the highest attaining level, but this tends to fall continuously
at each Key Stage. Black pupils face stereotypes and additional
barriers to academic success. Both Black Caribbean girls and boys,
appear to be in trouble more often than their peers. African-Caribbean,
Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils are markedly less likely to attain
five grade GCSEs than their white and Indian peers nationally.
There is often an assumption that the reasons for underachievement
lie with the pupil or the community and not with the school. However,
there is no evidence that any group is less capable than any other,
however much some school staff are ready to accept, be it subconsciously,
that there is an inherent hierarchy of ability. The progress rate
of these groups therefore needs to be accelerated so they can
catch up with the white and Indian Groups. As with the majority
population, boys generally do less well than the girls.
8. In schools where minority ethnic pupils
do well, there is usually good quality teaching and learning.
Pupils are set challenging tasks and there are high expectations
for all pupils to achieve. The progress of pupils is tracked intensively
and they are given strong personal support. There is a positive
and energetic response to racism.
LACK OF
ROLE MODELS
AND OF
SUPPORT FOR
ME STAFF
9. Minority ethnic staff may not feel supported
in school. They can experience racism from pupils and parents
and have to deal with it themselves. Schools are at times reluctant
to take decisive action, as awareness of relevant issues amongst
staff overall is often patchy. This can make teaching as a career
unattractive. There are examples where Black teachers have organised
themselves to discuss common issues and offer each other support.
Others, however, have viewed these gatherings with suspicion.
Minority ethnic staff are often seen as experts in dealing with
race issues, when they may be equally as inexpert as any other
teacher.
10. Studies have shown that minority ethnic
staff are more likely to end up on lower grades and on lower salaries.
Yet action designed to raise their profile and skills is often
seen as discriminatory by white people. Detailed ethnically-based
data on number, status and promotion of minority staff is not
available for analysis or evaluation.
PARTNERSHIPS WITH
PARENTS AND
LOCAL COMMUNITIES
11. Many minority ethnic communities provide
community classes to educate their children. These often take
place after school or at weekends in places of worship such as
temples. Classes may include teaching of language, culture and
religion. Some supplementary schools concentrate on support for
recognised academic subjects such as English and Maths. The work
of these schools is often not recognised by the state schools
which the pupils attend. LEAs may provide some funding for these
schools, but do not measure the impact, or actively encourage
or make it a condition of funding that mainstream and supplementary
schools work together. There is, therefore, a lack of continuity.
12. Successful school are outward looking
and work continuously to gain the confidence of parents and pupils
and establish their credibility in the communities they serve.
These also have good working relationships with outside agencies
such as voluntary organizations, local temples and the local Race
Equality Council. A particular strength of these schools is their
communication with parents. These can take many forms. All schools
are the centres of their community, yet many multi racial schools
are still used mainly by one or two ethnic groups, outside school
hours.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND
CELEBRATION OF
DIVERSITY
13. Most pupils are growing up in a multi
racial society. Yet schools often portray themselves as mainly
Western and Christian. Displays can show a lack of images, language
and drawings from other cultures. Festivals such as Eid and events
such as Black history month are often only seen as relevant to
multi racial schools. Often attempts to focus on other cultures
may only emphasise the negative e.g. studying an Indian or African
village, or over crowding in under developed countries.
MAINSTREAMING AND
LEA PRIORITY
14. Although many LEAs have had formal equal
opportunities policies in place for a number of years, few have
developed systems for analysing the performance of pupils by ethnicity.
This picture is improving and many LEAs now share good practice
and site a clear vision and strategy on how to raise underachievement
in their Education development Plan.
15. However mainstream initiatives, for
example the Numeracy and Literacy strategies still do not analyse
their data for minority ethnic attainment and do not set targets
for underachieving groups. This is seen as the responsibility
of the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service or the Traveller Education
Service. These services rarely sufficiently influence overall
LEA policy or strategy. Their work is operational, supporting
individuals, and they are responsible for setting targets and
the measuring of outcomes.
16. Clearly, the Ethnic Minority Achievement
Grant has helped raise achievement (not necessarily attainment)
but questions remain such as why do Indian pupils attain higher
outcomes? The picture is not uniform. In some LEAs, Pakistani
pupils, more than their white counterparts, were likely to achieve.
Bangladeshi pupils usually lag behind.
LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
17. Critical to success is the quality of
leadership and Management, but few of our leaders have had targeted
training in Diversity. Head teachers need to be as knowledgeable
about this as about literacy and numeracy, and therefore require
targeted training, with centrally produced materials and guidance,
and financial support for them and their teachers to be paid cover
money to manage their classes. There is too little funding for
the promotion of minority ethnic achievement. Part of the solution
is to provide access for all staff to high-quality mandatory training
so that the needs of minority ethnic pupils may be tackled with
confidence.
18. There can be a similar lack of full
understanding and awareness at Directorate level in LEAs. Leaders
are simply not aware of all the issues and therefore do not make
diversity an ongoing priority. It may not figure prominently when
the strategic decisions are made. People who are seen as the "experts"
are often consulted afterwards, but are rarely present when key
strategic decisions are made at high level.
19. NAEIAC hopes that the above points will
be of interest to the Committee, and would be happy to respond
to any requests for further information which may assist the Committee's
deliberations.
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