Memorandum submitted by the General Teaching
Council for England
RAISING THE
ATTAINMENT OF
LOW ACHIEVING
MINORITY ETHNIC
PUPILS
The following focused submission consists of
evidence from a recently held joint meeting between the General
Teaching Council for England (GTCE) and the Runnymede Trust.
The meeting brought together nearly 120 practising
teachers to discuss the issues facing both black and minority
ethnic (BME) pupils and teachers. The evidence provided here is
solely on the achievement of BME pupils.
The key points can be summarised as follows:
— The curriculum should to be diversified
to ensure that it includes and reaffirms pupils from diverse backgrounds.
— Assessment within 14-19 needs to
be more flexible to ensure that underachieving pupils are not
alienated from post-compulsory education.
— There is a tension between education
for all groups and the messages of the mainstream media.
— At the heart of inclusive education
is ensuring the school is closely connected to its community stakeholders.
— The Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant
(EMAG) has allowed successful intervention to low achieving ethnic
minority students and pupils with English as an additional language.
However reduced LEA funding is leading to a reduction in the number
of specialist EMAG teachers and reduces the capacity for EMAG
to include all BME pupils.
CONSENSUS IN
THE TEACHER
TESTIMONY FROM
THE MEETING
1. The curriculum is too narrow to ensure
the inclusion of pupils from diverse backgrounds. The history
curriculum should represent better the experience of all sectors
of the community and that issues of diversity should be represented
across the curriculum, not confined to citizenship and history.
2. Teachers felt that the rigid assessment
procedures around aged 16 prevented schools from offering adequate
provision to all pupils. There needs to be a diversified track
through which pupils can progress.
3. The impact of youth culture and media
is impacts on the disaffection with education by some ethnic minority
groups. Schools have to operate within an oppressive popular culture
that often stereotyped minority ethnic people and asylum seekers.
4. The importance of the school connecting
to the community and supporting parents from marginal minority
groups was deemed high.
5. The ethnic minority achievement grant
(EMAG) which provides ring-fenced funding for intervention in
the education of vulnerable and low achieving minority ethnic
pupils and those pupils who have English as an additional language
(EAL) finds general support:
5.1 "EMAG has made a huge difference.
One-to-one work with some pupils allow them to discuss and share
or speak up, they allow some pupils to open up and talk."
(Primary teacher with 23 years teaching service)
5.2 "EMAG staff raise the achievement
of the whole school, not just individuals." (Primary teacher
and EMAG coordinator with 11 years teaching service)
5.3 "EMAG helps children with their
confidence and self esteem, it is not just a second language problem
for some pupils." (Primary teacher and maths coordinator
with seven years teaching service)
6. As budgets are increasingly being devolved
to schools there has been a loss of specialist teachers within
LEAs and complex tasks were often being taken by support staff.
The variety of pedagogic styles that the EMAG teacher could introduce
to schools was seen as valuable and worth preserving.
7. The EMAG was generally praised, but it
was not seen far reaching enough. Not all asylum seeker pupils
and pupils with EAL receive adequate support under the existing
EMAG funding.
February 2003
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