Academic Achievement: Ethnic Minorities (Hansard, 27 April 2004)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)
My Lords, in October 2003 the Government introduced a strategy to raise minority ethnic achievement. The strategy aims to ensure that mainstream school improvement programmes do as much as possible to narrow achievement gaps between the highest and lowest achieving groups and provide targeted support for those most at risk of underachieving. The targeted support includes a national project to raise the achievement of African Caribbean pupils, in particular boys, in secondary schools.

§ Lord Northbourne
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for that reply and am much encouraged to hear about the work under way in schools. Does she agree that families also have a hugely important role to play in motivating children to do well at school? For boys in particular, a father or other male role model in the family can be very influential. Would the Government be prepared to do more to consult local communities, in particular local ethnic minority communities, about what they feel is needed and then work with them to secure a situation in which more families give encouragement to their boys to work hard at school, thereby avoiding social exclusion later in life?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord that it is important to recognise the critical role played by families. Indeed, the success criteria identified in the work undertaken by Ofsted when examining schools which have been successful with children from different minority ethnic backgrounds shows that parental and community involvement are critical factors. However, I hesitate to suggest that families from the minority ethnic communities are anything other than fully engaged in wanting their children to achieve in educational terms.
678 Moreover, the Government certainly have a responsibility to communicate and discuss these issues to ensure that their views are heard properly.

§ Lord Blaker
My Lords, is not one of the main factors in the success of Chinese children the role of Chinese parents, who have traditionally attached great importance to education and communicate that to their children?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, the success of the Chinese community is well noted. The noble Lord might be interested to learn that at key stage 3 in mathematics, 90 per cent of Chinese pupils attain the expected level compared with 71 per cent nationally. However, I have not yet met a family from a different minority ethnic group which does not have aspirations for its children. So I hesitate to imply in any way that there is a link between any particular minority ethnic group background and the role of families. A range of factors affect the attainment levels and achievement opportunities of our children. It is our job to address those factors and ensure that we provide the right kind of support.

§ Lord Chan
My Lords, regarding the group which has just been mentioned, I agree with the Minister that parental expectation is not the only factor. However, does she agree that one of the best ways to encourage children from a certain group is by providing support from other ethnic minority groups in the same area so as to foster cross-ethnic and cross-cultural support? I include white groups in my suggestion. In that way, the different groups are encouraged to attain better results.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Chan, has raised an important issue. What is clear from the research undertaken by Ofsted is that there are particular ways of operating and ways in which schools organise themselves that support children from all ethnic backgrounds. For example, an ethos of respect forms a critical part of the effort, as does effective teaching and learning within a curriculum that reflects the culture and communities of pupils right across the individual school. Such factors are essential in seeking to ensure that all children succeed.

§ Baroness Seccombe
My Lords, what studies have been made of the relationship between the underachievement of boys from all ethnic groups and the standards of discipline in schools? If not, do the Government have plans to do so?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I am not aware of any studies that correlate those two particular factors because, again, one feels that there might be an underlying assumption about discipline and what happens in relation to the achievement of boys. The gap in the level of attainment between girls and boys has been remarked on previously in your Lordships' House. It is important to understand fully 679 the factors relating to the underachievement of boys in general and then, within that, to unpick those factors which relate to particular groups of boys, some of whom do well in primary education but then fail to do so well at the secondary level.

§ Lord Shutt of Greetland
My Lords, is there any difference between the attainment of Afro-Caribbean boys educated in all-boys schools and those educated in mixed schools?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I do not have any specific statistics for Afro-Caribbean boys. However, I am aware that it is very difficult to make correlations between single-sex education and co-education because so much depends on the ethos and style of the school itself and the approach it takes to its own form of education. Given that, there are no direct correlations.

§ Baroness Howells of St Davids
My Lords, I am sure that all noble Lords are aware that Caribbean people are the most researched group in the world. However, I should like to point out that, from the Caribbean perspective, the problem faced by Caribbean parents concerns discipline. Has any thought been given to offering support to Caribbean parents and communities? We have started up supplementary schools, but the Government have never been generous in their support of those parents who give their time at the weekends to help in such schools.
Discipline is the criterion. A child coming from the Caribbean can enter university over here without having to take an access course. Something is happening in Britain. I can assure my noble friend that the Caribbean community feels very strongly that no government have offered support to families in bringing up their children. Those who come from secure families get on well, something to which this House can attest. It is the kids without support structures who suffer. What are the Government doing? Will they put money into supplementary schools in order to help parents? I ask that because reports do not help.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I am huge fan of the role of supplementary schools. It is well known in the department that I feel very strongly that we need to do more to support them, not least because they have been very successful in helping to endorse the principles of a good education for children. As the noble Baroness said, it is often parents and teachers who give up their spare time and persuade children on a Saturday morning to spend time having a new and different learning experience. We are working with our education authorities and our schools to try to get a better support mechanism. As the noble Baroness pointed out, none of us has dealt with this issue as effectively as we might. My aspiration is that we can certainly do more 680 Support structures are absolutely critical. From the work that has been carried out on what it is that helps these children succeed, it is clear that strong expectations and strong leadership are involved.