Performance of Children from Ethnic Minority Backgrounds in Primary Schools

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Over the past 20 years the characteristics of the school population in certain local education authorities have changed with the arrival of immigrants to the United Kingdom from the New Commonwealth.1 Their children (both those who arrived with their parents, came later, and more recently growing numbers born in this country) have needs in common with other pupils, and they also have special needs stemming partly from the fact of their or their parents' recent arrival, partly from cultural differences, as well as specific language needs; on top of this there is the majority population's reactions to them and in particular their colour.2 The key issue facing educationalists is the extent to which the conventional educational system and its practices require modification to ensure equality of opportunity and performance for these pupils and ways in which necessary modifications can be best achieved.3 At the outset two major points must be emphasized: (i) although pupils with 'New Commonwealth' backgrounds constitute a small proportion of the total school population in the country as a whole, their concentration is such that in certain areas-especially urban areas-they account for a large proportion of the relevant population. Townsend4 has shown, for example, that these pupils constituted 3'3%0 of the total school population in the country on the basis of the Department of Education and Science definition; and he calculated that on a wider definition the figure is about 4-5%. This small proportion, however, conceals the uneven distribution. The London area accounts for slightly more than half followed by South Lancashire and the West Midlands. In fact two local authority areas have more than 25% of their pupil roll defined as immigrant, five between 20-25% and a further six I5-20 . Furthermore the number of individual schools with heavy concentrations is growing. Nearly I,000 schools out of 33,000 now have over one quarter immigrant pupils, and some authorities with few children of minority groups overall have one or two schools with very large percentages.5 This uneven distribution means that some areas and schools are faced with a greater need to cope with the educational issues which pupils from minority backgrounds present than others and in these areas a twofold response is called for. The first requirement is a commitment to positive policies, an admission that the education of minority group children is an important issue, a move away from the 'we-have-no-problems-here' approach found in some areas. Secondly the need is for more resources to be made available to such areas, both from the local education authorities and as a result of positive action by central Government. (ii) a second consideration which is relevant concerns the extent to which the educational needs of these pupils and those of under-privileged section of the indigenous