Black Boys and Education

07 Mar 2005

The Express

The Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality Trevor Philips has caused a media storm by calling for segregated education for black boys. Whatever you think of Trevor’s proposed remedy, he has highlighted an underlying educational crisis. I have worked on this issue for many years. Three years ago I wrote “There is a silent catastrophe happening in Britain’s schools in the way that they continue to fail black British schoolchildren” Today things are very little better. When African and Afro-Caribbean children enter the school system at age five they do as well as white and Asian children in tests. By age 11 their achievement levels begin to drop off. By 16 there has been a collapse. And this is particularly true of black boys. Nationally about 50% of sixteen year olds get 5 good GCE’s. But only a 25% of black boys achieve this standard.

This is not a new issue. As long ago as 1977 a House of Commons Select Committee on race relations and immigration reported that “as a matter of urgency the government should institute a high-level and independent inquiry into the causes of the underachievement of children of West Indian origin in maintained schools and the remedial action required” Last years report by the London Development Agency’s Education Commission concluded “The English schooling system has produced dismal academic results for a high percentage of black pupils for the best part of fifty years”

And this is an issue which should concern all of us not just black parents and their children. Firstly it is impossible to raise standards overall in many inner city areas without addressing the perennial issue of black underachievement. Furthermore educational failure is closely linked with social exclusion which in turn means that some of these young people will be drawn into crime.

It is also a complex issue. Chinese children do much better than the national average.  And first generation African children do better than Afro-Caribbean children. But the research shows that second and third generation African children perform very similarly to Afro-Caribbean children – particularly the boys.

For several years I have been lobbying ministers on this issue and organizing seminars and conferences. Last year I coordinated the fourth “London Schools and the Black Child “conference. It was attended by over two-thousand people. There has been some progress. For the first time Government is keeping records of educational achievement broken down by race. For years the government statistics merged figures on the Asian community with figures on black children which hid the extent of black educational failure. In response to my lobbying the government also set up the “Aiming Higher” initiative which is the first ever government educational initiative targeted at black children. In the past three years my own borough of Hackney has gone from only 10% of black boys getting five good GCE’s at sixteen to over 25%.

Maybe it is the pitifully slow rate of progress which was prompted Trevor to call for school segregation. But I am not persuaded that this, on its own, would alter things. We all of us have a role to play in helping black children achieve their full potential. And the issue needs to be addressed early at the primary schools stage. Parental involvement is the key. It is noticeable that black led Saturday schools which are set up and run on a voluntary basis by the black community itself often achieve much better results with black children than the schools that they attend Monday to Friday. One of the big factors is the high level of parental involvement in these voluntary initiatives. Black parents are very concerned about their children’s education. The attendance at my annual conferences proves that. But I encourage parents to get   more involved in their children’s schools and  from the earliest stage; whether as parent-governors, helping in the classroom or just doing their bit in the PTA. American research shows that boys respond well to men in the classroom. They often live in female headed households in areas of high unemployment where there are no positive black male role modes. I am working with the Mayor of London ken Livingstone to see how we can recruit more black teachers in London’s schools. The aim is to  have a teaching workforce that “Looks like London”. The London Development Agency’s Education Commission in its 285 page report concluded “The consensus was that low teacher expectations played a major part in the underachievement of African-Caribbean pupils. In addition, inadequate levels of positive teacher attention, unfair behavior management practices disproportionately high levels of exclusions and an inappropriate curriculum took their toll” I think that government also needs to more including: building on the “Aiming Higher” program; doing more to recruit black teachers; supporting black community led initiatives like Saturday Schools and putting more money into schools in deprived areas generally. And, of course, the issue of the underachievement of black boys has to be seen in the context of the underachievement of boys generally. Research shows that even black middle class boys do worse than white middle class boys. So there is a case for looking at black boys separately. But we should never forget that we are looking at an educational system where historically working-class children have underachieved.

The danger of segregating black boys, as Trevor Phillips suggests, is that without any extra resources or strategy it will just be seen as a form of exclusion from mainstream classes. He has also suggested sanctions on black fathers who do not turn up for parents’ evenings etc. He is right to focus on the importance of parental involvement. But, again, it is doubtful whether sanctions alone would have the desired effect. Trevor is to be congratulated on raising an important issue; however segregation is not the way forward. But the issue of black underachievement in British schools cannot be swept under the carpet; it is a continuing tragedy for the boys, for their families and for the wider society.



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