ABBOTT: We need to bring Caribbean teachers into British schools to share best practices and knowledge. - File
IT MAY take teachers from the Caribbean to turn around the academic performance of Caribbean boys in Britain.
That suggestion comes from British Labour Party Member of Parliament, Dianne Abbott, amid renewed debate about the poor grades of black boys in schools in the United Kingdom.
Her comments follow a suggestion by Trevor Phillips, the chairman of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), that the British Government should consider educating black boys in separate classes from their white peers in order to help them perform better.
"If the only way to break through the wall of attitude that surrounds black boys is to teach them separately for some subjects, then we should be ready for that," Phillips, whose parents are from Guyana, told the BBC.
WIDE DEBATE
But while Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in London, does not entirely agree with the CRE head, she nevertheless feels that the
matter warrants wide debate.
"I'm not sure that Trevor Phillips' suggestion is the answer," she told BBC Caribbean Radio, "but it's good that he's drawing attention to this long-standing problem."
She argues that it is the British school system that is failing Caribbean boys.
Miss Abbott, who has been at the forefront of a series of annual conferences on issues affecting black youth in the U.K., says part of the problem is down to "institutional racism in the school system, with some teachers having stereotypical ideas of black children and what they can be expected to achieve."
BRING IN CARIBBEAN TEACHERS
One way of surmounting the problem of underachieving Caribbean boys in U.K. schools, the Labour MP suggests, is to recruit teachers from the Caribbean.
"We need to look at working with the Caribbean in terms of teachers from the Caribbean coming to teach in British schools."
She, however, acknowledges that 'asset-stripping' Caribbean schools could be a problem as already there has been an outcry over the 'brain-drain' of the region's teachers to the U.K. and United States.
"There ought to be ways to bring Caribbean teachers into British schools on secondment to share best practices and knowledge."
The issue of the poor performance of some Caribbean boys and how best to improve their failing grades has caused widespread debate throughout the U.K.
MAKING THE GRADE
The British Department for Education and Skills reports that black teenagers continue to lag far behind their white classmates at the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), although there were signs the gap was narrowing. The GCSE is the equivalent of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams.
Its most recent figures show that 47.4 per cent of white boys obtained five or more grades A plus to C at the GCSE and equivalent, compared to 31.9 per cent for black boys.
Black Caribbean boys performed worse at 27.3 per cent, while their African peers scored 37.3 per cent.
Boys of Indian and Chinese backgrounds topped the list of male pupils, with some 69.5 of Chinese and 61.6 per cent of Indians making the grade. Pakistani boys trailed at 38.8 per cent.
Meanwhile, some 45.9 per cent of all black girls earned five or more top GCSE grades.
The national average for all boys was 46.8 per cent, and 51.9 per cent for girls.
A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said progress was being made and ethnic minorities were "closing the gap," but there was "no room for complacency."
Taken from BBC Caribbean
