Author: Our London Correspondent
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: October 3, 2003
Pakistani pupils have been blamed
for poor results in national tests in Britain.
A report on this summers exam performance
says Pakistani youngsters are to blame, together with poor people and failing
schools for disappointing results. A detailed analysis of the results has
been prepared by Education Bradford, which has the job of driving up standards
for all age groups.
A report on Thursday's meeting of
the education policy partnership board says, "Detailed analysis suggests
the poor rates of pupil progress are especially associated with pupils
from Pakistani backgrounds, pupils from socio-economically deprived white
UK backgrounds, especially boys, and schools with systemic issues identified
by Ofsted." Around 10 per cent of schools in Bradford are currently labelled
by education watchdog Ofsted as failing or with serious weaknesses, five
times the national rate.
Mr Alan Davy, of the Bradford branch
of the National Association of Head Teachers, said he was not surprised
that Bradfords Key Stage 2 results had stood still, as nationally results
had also hit a plateau.
Of the Education Bradford explanation,
he said, "I don't think we should be getting into blame culture. As schools,
we don't blame, we aim to promote achievement for all our pupils. We would
not want to get into a blame scenario, pointing figures at groups of people."
After a severe drubbing at the hands
of Ofsted in 2000, the city's education chiefs took the radical step of
bringing in a private company, Education Bradford, to run services, and
vowed there would be no more excuses.
Teachers groups who protested that
poverty and second-language learners held back results were criticised
for their low expectations. This year, 14-year-old's did much better in
national tests, improving the standing of Bradford, but the tests done
by 11-year-old's showed no improvement from last year. At GCSE, Bradford
results are believed to have edged up another two per cent while nationally,
the improvement has been estimated at 2.5 per cent.