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This couplet was written by the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar.  It is from a widely acclaimed ghazal[i] when he was exiled in Burma by the British after the 1857 Indian Rebellion (or Mutiny, depending on your perspective).  His death in 1862 brought to an end the hugely successful Mughal dynasty established by his ancestor Babar in 1526.  This article suggests that the government’s failure to collect, analyse and publish relevant information, as required by the specific duties of the 2010 Equality Act  in modern Britain, implies that it sees the Equality Act as, in the words of Bahadur Shah Zafar, no more than ‘a speck of dust that can do no good to anyone’. In particular the article considers the lack of information about intersectionality and the lack of information about differences between regions and local authorities. The article refers mainly to race equality, but touches also on issues of gender and special educational needs.


[i] A ghazal is a short love poem in which the two halves of the first couplet and the second line of the remaining couplets rhyme.

Intersectionality

The recent reforms in education in England with their emphasis on changing structures, supposedly granting greater autonomy for individual schools but in essence ensuring greater control from the centre, high accountability stakes and funding reforms, especially in relation to the ethnic minority achievement grant (EMAG), have meant that raising the attainment of minority pupils has been largely left to the forces of the emerging ‘self-improving’ school system. This contrasts with the strong steer coming from the centre to focus on the under-attainment of pupils from low-income households, as measured by eligibility for free school meals and therefore for the pupil premium grant (PPG).  The steer on low-income households, although much needed, has largely been one-dimensional, focusing primarily on the underperformance of White British pupils. In consequence a valuable opportunity has been a missed: an opportunity to look at intersectionality as a lever for raising standards of performance across a range of groups of pupils who are currently failing to achieve the level of national age-related expectations.  The pupil premium grant (PPG) is concerned with reducing a form of inequality, and is a welcome move in the right direction.  But using this resource to target the needs of pupils who are from minority ethnic backgrounds has been noticeably absent, even though such pupils are disproportionately affected by low household income[i] and even though their number is constantly increasing. [ii] 

Intersectionality is a term originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the United States. It highlights the necessity to understand the complex and multiple ways in which various systems of inequality can come together at the same time.[iii] As David Gillborn and Nicola Rollock pointed out in their 2011 paper for the British Educational Research Association, ‘adopting an intersectional framework allows for the exploration of differences within and between groups that take account of issues such as historical and socio-political context while still maintaining awareness of racial inequalities’.[iv]  The same point has been powerfully made by Bhopal and Preston (2012)[v] and by Brah and Phoenix (2004).[vi]

Current patterns of attainment

It is hard to comprehend nowadays that it was only early this century that educational data started to be disaggregated by ethnicity so that the performance of students of different minority groups became known. As early as 2000, in their seminal report for Ofsted entitled Educational inequality, mapping class race and gender, David Gillborn and Heidi Safia Mirza showed that, while social class is the most powerful determinant of educational outcomes, a key role is played also by ethnicity and, though to a lesser extent, by gender. Despite this and other research findings, binary and linear approaches to addressing educational outcomes still prevail, with a particular focus presently just on aspects of social class.

In consequence, very little information is currently available in the public domain which shows how intersectionality operates in schools. However, data in Table 1 is of preliminary relevance and interest. It is based on information shared at a DfE roundtable meeting in March 2013 and looks at pupils who did not attain the levels expected nationally at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4. Unfortunately, it focuses only on the three factors of low income, English as an additional language (EAL), and special educational needs: it does not show how ethnicity and gender interplay, since the DfE could not provide this information. It shows that at the end of Key Stage 2 in 2012 four fifths (81 per cent) of pupils who did not achieve expected levels had one or more of the following characteristics: special educational needs, from a low-income household, English as additional language. By far the most significant of these characteristics was special educational needs. Only six per cent were affected by low income alone.



[i]  FSM eligibility White British – 15.8%, ethic minority origin:   24.4%, overall 18.8%, Traveller Irish Heritage 65.8 %, Gypsy Traveller 42.9%, Pakistani 24.4%, Bangladeshi 32.8%,Caribbean 33.1%, and African 38.1%). Source DfE 2013.
[ii] The 2013 school census figures show that 28.5% of pupils in primary and 24.2 % in secondary are from ethnic minority backgrounds.  The percentages for English as an additional language pupils are slightly lower, at 18.1% in Primary and 13.6% in Secondary.
[iii] Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalising the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, pp. 139-168.
[iv] Rollock, N. and Gillborn, D. (2011) Critical Race Theory (CRT), British Educational Research Association online resource
[v] Bhopal, K. and Preston, J. (2012) Intersectionality and Race in Education. London: Routledge.
[vi]  Brah, A. and Phoenix, A. (2004) Ain’t I a Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality, Journal of International Women’s Studies. 5(3): 75-86.

These results for the last five years show a vast improvement compared to previously when most EAL pupils were significantly languishing behind their peers. Just a generation ago it was routine for bilingual pupils to be sent to separate language centres to learn English before being admitted to schools.  This gradually changed to EAL pupils being sent to language centres within schools and being taught separately until it was felt that they would be able to cope with the mainstream curriculum of their peers.  If EAL pupils were extremely lucky then they may have made it directly into the mainstream, escaping the need to receive an alternative curriculum but were often left to sink or swim, without any support or appreciation of their EAL needs. Nowadays these practices would be deemed abhorrent and totally going against well- known research of how bilingual pupils acquire and learn languages.  Although these incidents happened approximately 25 – 30 years ago and illustrate the distance that has been travelled so far, they also highlight the journey which still needs to be travelled, until we get to a situation whereby all teachers have the understanding, knowledge and skills to address the needs of EAL pupils within the mainstream context and deliver high quality teaching and learning to enable all EAL pupils attain national expectations.

It therefore seems appropriate to briefly take stock of where we are now in relation to meeting the needs of pupils for whom English is an additional language in England and look at the potential of where we should be in the very near future. I have listed a few key headlines below:

·         At national levels gaps are closing as the graph above shows.  These results also mean that some of the powerful negative myths that have perpetuated in relation to bilingual pupils and their attainment are being exploded, resulting in the fact that bilingual pupils can and should achieve academic excellence as a matter of course.

·         Better outcomes in attainment mean that more EAL pupils have the potential to accrue the benefits of higher education.  This should contribute to better opportunities for gainful employment and improved life chances resulting in economic, social and health benefits for many more community members in the future.

·         Generally most minority ethnic pupils have higher proportions of pupils for whom English is an additional language, with the exception of Black Caribbean pupils.  This means that the positive aspects of being bilingual such as those outlined by many academics such as Jim Cummins, Colin Baker, Stephen Krashen, Tove Skutnabb- Kangas and more recently Ellen Bialystok can be used as a lever to support the learning of minority ethnic pupils currently not performing in line with their peers nationally.

·         Indian and Chinese pupils have been performing much higher than their peers for many years now. Both of these groups have high proportions of bilingual speakers, with over 80% of Indian pupils and 73% of Chinese pupils speaking English as an additional language.[1]  More recently the performance of Bangladeshi pupils nationally has also accelerated with impressive performances.   Previous reasons cited for Indian and Chinese pupils academic success have been attributed to lower rates of free school meal eligibility in these groups at 12% for Indian pupils and 14% for Chinese pupils.  However, the performance Bangladeshi pupils, with one of the highest free school eligibility figures at 52%, add to the growing body of evidence which shows that pupils eligible for free school meals also perform very highly, setting the precedence for others to follow.

·         There is growing evidence which is exploding many of the myths surrounding EAL pupils.   An example of this of is the recent research undertaken by Professor Sandra Mc Nally et al from the London School of Economics, Centre for the Economics of Education.  Their research shows that EAL pupils do not negatively impact on standards for non-EAL pupils.  For further details read my previous blog here)

HOWEVER, despite the seemingly positive picture emerging at a national level, there remain significant CHALLENGES

·         There are extreme variations in EAL pupil’s attainment by region which the national figures mask.   Nationally 58% of EAL pupils in England achieved 5 A*- C in English in Mathematics in 2012.  However, EAL pupils in London performed 4.5 percentage points higher at 62.5% compared to those in Yorkshire & Humber who performed nearly 10 percentage points lower at only 48.5%.    The graph below shows the regional variations in EAL pupils attainment 5 A*-C in English and Maths in 2012

[1] Figures cited are from ‘Ethnicity and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling’ by Christian Dustmann, Stephen Machin and Uta Schonberg in The Economic Journal 2010.

·         EAL pupil’s performance within particular LA’s shows further huge variations in attainment with only 32.7% of EAL pupils achieving the gold standard at GCSE in Hereford LA compared to 82.8% of their peers in Kensington and Chelsea or 82% in Sutton.  These huge disparities which continue to exist in different LA’s show the necessity to look beyond the national picture. Presently, where you live in England seems to exert a great influence of your educational outcomes which is morally unacceptable.

·         The success in closing of the gap of EAL pupils nationally can be attributed to a large extent to the higher performance of EAL pupils in London and West Midlands, where there are larger concentrations of EAL pupils,  with improvements in London largely due to the success of ‘The London Challenge’.  Amongst the various strategies which have been cited in accounting for the success of the London Challenge, the Pan EAL London EAL Strategy is worth highlighting for particular attention.  The Pan EAL London Strategy enabled LA’s to receive additional funding to support effective teams to provide support for EAL pupils and to spread this expertise across London.  The effectiveness of this work has been highlighted by M Hutchings and A Mansaray in ‘A review of the impact of the London Challenge (2003-8) and the City Challenge (2008-11)’ submitted as evidence to Ofsted’s ‘Access and Achievement’ Review a few months ago.

·         There are further variations in EAL pupil’s performance when looking at other characteristics such as ethnicity, socio-economic background and gender.  Socio-economic gaps are more pronounced for White British groups compared to most ethnic minority groups.  For some minority ethnic groups this is because non – free school meal pupils are less likely to come from families with higher socio-economic and professional backgrounds so the differences are less marked.  Since national data is not available by ethnicity and EAL, ethnicity data can provide a useful indicator of performance, bearing in mind the intersections of ethnicity and EAL.  The differences in performance by FSM eligibility and ethnicity are shown in the graph below:

·         Bangladeshi pupil’s performance nationally is skewed by the fact that over half of all Bangladeshi pupils live in London, with about a third located in Tower Hamlets alone.  Tower Hamlets is one of the success stories and had an impressive 67.8 % of EAL pupils attain 5 A*- C including English and Mathematics in 2012 which is nearly 10 % above the national average.

·         There are considerable differences in attainment when looking at key stages with outcomes much lower for all minority ethnic and EAL pupils at the start of schooling and even at the end of primary for most groups compared to secondary where most of the gains for EAL pupils are made. This is well documented by researchers.[1] This means the potential outcomes of EAL pupils could be accelerated further if the progress seen in secondary, particularly at KS 4 was replicated in primary.

·         Gender differences also impact across various regions with EAL girls generally performing much higher than both non-EAL and EAL boys with the exception of the Yorkshire & Humber region where EAL girls performed marginally better than EAL boys but lower than non – EAL girls and boys. The graph below shows how EAL and Gender characteristics lead to extremely differential outcomes across regions with EAL boys in the South West performing the lowest in 2012 leading to a gap of 16.9% compared to their peers in London. 

[1] ‘The Dynamics of School Attainment of England’s Ethnic Minorities’by Deborah Wilson, Simon Burgess and Adam Briggs CASE paper 2006,
‘A Comparative Analysis of Bangladeshi and Pakistani Educational Attainment in London Secondary Schools’ by Sunder Divya and Layli  Uddin 2007,
Drivers and Challenges in Raising the Achievement of Pupils from Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish Backgrounds by Steve Strand et al 2010 and Figures cited are from ‘Ethnicity and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling’ by Christian Dustmann, Stephen Machin and Uta Schonberg in The Economic Journal 2010.

·         The regional differences are further compounded when looking at the performance in LA’s e.g. only 30 % of EAL boys and 39.3 % of EAL girls in Blackpool LA achieved the gold standard at GCSE last year. This is a stark contrast to the 81.7 % of EAL boys and 84.3 % of EAL girls in Kensington & Chelsea who achieved this benchmark.

·         Another consideration is in relation to the performance of EAL pupils in mainly white LA’s.  The issues are complex and may be down to the arrival of newer communities or lack of strategy and expertise in supporting EAL pupils particularly when EAL pupils are dispersed across an LA and are considered to be relatively small.

It seems that we in England are at the cusp of making sustained changes in ensuring better educational outcomes for our EAL pupils, many of whom until recently have been languishing behind their peers.  Taking a long view there is much to be celebrated and built upon.  However, considering the fact that it has taken us over 30 years to get to this stage, with the gains by no means sustained nationally for all key stages and certainly not across regions and LA’s it is imperative that the best practice that is evident is disseminated as a matter of urgency to so that the momentum continues to be built upon.  Sadly, although the national results for EAL pupils are applauded there is little if any emphasis on meeting the needs of EAL pupils in other areas or indeed in using flagship policies such as the Pupil Premium to stress the interlinked relationships that exist for EAL pupils and other characteristics such as free school meal eligibility.  A more focused and nuanced policy at a national level is required to ensure that the potential of all EAL pupils, irrespective of ethnicity, socio-economic backgrounds and gender is realised and the impact of where you live or which you school you go to does not result in a lottery in achieving better educational outcomes.  

The headlines are based on a detailed paper which is currently being written by Sameena Choudry on EAL pupils in England and the need for a nuanced strategy to close the gaps.

For many centuries Roma community members have been and continue to be subjected to unfair treatment and vilified in many countries in Europe.  This often means that community members are forced to live on the margins of society and are treated like second class citizens event though their families have been settled there for many centuries.   One of the saddest aspects of this that many Roma children have been forced to attend separate schools from the host communities.  Even more disturbing is the fact that a high percentage of Roma pupils are routinely placed in special schools in Eastern Europe when they should be going to ordinary schools.

Many international organisations and countries including the Court of Human Rights have criticised the abhorrent practice but despite these challenges to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Roma pupils are more than 27 more times likely to be placed in special schools [i]

As a result of the harsh discrimination which members of the Roma communities suffer in Europe some have migrated to the United Kingdom over the last few years.   It is known at Local Authority level that many Roma pupils currently underachieve.  When looking at national disaggregated performance data Roma pupils are categorised along with Gypsy and Traveller pupils and it can be difficult to see the performance of Roam pupils as a separate group.  However, the overaraching groups of GRT is the lowest performing group in England at all key stages and although many of the wider issues affecting Gypsy and Traveller pupils are the same for Roma pupils there are also distinct differences too, such as the fact that 90% of Roma pupils also have English as an additional language needs.  

However, very little research has been conducted into the educational experiences and attainment of Roma pupils in England which remains a key area which needs to be explored further.  There is however one excellent research report that was conducted in November 2011 called ‘From Segregation to Inclusion: Roma Pupils in the United Kingdom, A pilot research project.   This excellent report provides a wealth of useful information and hopefully is the first of its kind to provide much needed information to inform practice and pedagogy to meet the needs of Roma pupils in schools so that they can achieve on a par with their peers.  

Colleagues working for Equality UK, the organisation conducting the research above interviewed 61 Czech or Slovak Roma students, along with 28 Roma parents and 25 school staff across eight locations - Leicester, Chatham, Rotherham, Wolverhampton, Southend on Sea, Peterborough, London, and Derby.

The key findings of the field work and research are quite stark:

• 85% (51) of the Roma pupils had previously been sent to special schools or Roma only schools prior to arriving in the UK, with 12 out of 17 of these pupils reported they had been sent there after undergoing a psychological test in their Year 1 & 2 classes when they were 7 and 8 years old.
• More positively since coming to England, in contrast only 2-4 % of the same Roma children were deemed to be having special educational needs because of learning difficulties or disabilities and for those that required additional support this was provided within the mainstream schools Of these pupils requiring additional support none had a statement.
• Most of the staff in schools were aware that Roma pupils were  segregated from other pupils and taught separately from their peers or labelled as SEN and put into Special Schools in other European countries and were shocked at this practice.
• The Roma pupils surveyed also reported high levels of racist bullying or verbal abuse from non-Roma children in their countries of origin, with many also stating that their teachers were also discriminatory towards them.   In some cases the pupils alleged that they had been subject to physical punishment at the hands of their teachers.
• In contrast in 7 out of the 8 locations Roma pupils reported that they were not suffering any  racist bullying here in UK schools and they found teachers to be very supportive and helpful.
  
• This understandably led the vast majority of pupils to state that they preferred schools in the UK because of the absence of racism and discrimination and the emphasis on equal opportunities.
  
• All the parents were very positive about the education their children were receiving in the UK and notably mentioned the absence of discrimination and the focus on equal opportunities in the UK which led to their children being treated equal to their peers.  They also valued the positive ethos of the schools and the feeling of welcome they received.  Overwhelmingly, all the parents cited the prospects of their children receiving a good education and employment as being a deciding factor in their decision to come to the UK.   Sadly,  this optimism wasn’t shared for the education Roma children were receiving in their countries of origin as they felt that it would take many years to get rid of the discrimination if indeed at all. 
  

The report highlights a number of recommendations for both the international community to improve the educational systems for Roma pupils in Europe, as well as within the UK including the sharing of best practice which exists in LA and schools.  Although the  research sample is still relatively small it is the first of its kind and it provides detailed information gained as a result of the case studies undertaken with Roma pupils, their parents and staff.  This insight into the views, experiences and future aspirations of Roma pupils with prove beneficial for teachers and staff working with schools and who wish to enhance their understanding of the educational needs of Roma pupils.

For those interested in finding out more about how to respond to the educational needs of Roma pupils and develop best practice in their own schools or LA’s we shall be sharing the best practice in schools we know where they are leading the way in making a difference for Roma pupils.  Future blogs will highlight what it is these successful schools are doing to achieve high educational outcomes for Roma pupils and ensuring an inclusive ethos which makes them feel safe, settled, secure and part of the whole school community.

[i] Source Council of Europe, Report by Thomas Hammarberg,Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe,following his visit to theCzech Republic from 17 to 19 November 2010; CommDH (2011)3, 3 March 2011, availableonline:https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1754217,para 60 cited in From Segregation to Inclusion: Roma Pupils in the United Kingdom, A pilot research project.