I’ve written the below for today’s Sunday Express. Bengalis I’ve spoken to about this think it’s a disgrace that council money is being used to pay for private tutors to teach kids what their families call their “mother tongue”. There is nothing wrong with children learning Bengali–indeed it’s positive because multilingualism is a real asset–but should extracurricular lessons be given on the rates? I don’t know when this policy started: my partner learnt Bengali when she was a child but it was her parents who paid for it – and “quite rightly so”, she says.
There are a couple of other aspects to this: the money is being given through the grants system to small community groups–the full list is here and here on my FoI request–so there is little scrutiny about how it is actually spent (plus, the tutors aren’t necessarily qualified or inspected); and this is a clever way of inflating the borough’s GCSE figures.
Here’s the article:
TAXPAYERS are bankrolling private language lessons for children of migrant families to learn their parents’ native tongue, even though many can barely speak English.
Some of Britain’s poorest councils have spent millions of pounds providing after-school tuition in languages such as Bengali, Urdu and Arabic at mosques and community centres.
Despite problems with English literacy in their areas, they claim the policy “celebrates diversity”, promotes “community cohesion” and helps children prepare for early GCSEs in the language they speak at home.
In Tower Hamlets, east London, where the level of English is so poor among some pupils entering primary school that translators are needed, the council spends £185,000 a year providing free Bengali lessons after school hours.
It has distributed £1.3million to about 40 community groups since 2006.
Beneficiaries include several Islamic organisations, such as Dawatul Islam UK and the Madrasah-e-Darul Qirat Majidiah, which also runs a fee-paying Muslim school.
The council’s Community Language Service even runs British citizenship classes at mosques and Islamic madrasahs, but the town hall was unable to guarantee those lessons were given in English.
In most cases, councils are distributing the cash as grants to small community groups and “supplementary schools”, a system over which councillors exert special powers. The money is used to pay tutors’ salaries and to cover rents.
Ofsted admits it does not carry out specific inspections and that it has been trying to ensure that tutors are vetted and qualified.
A survey by the Sunday Express found that most councils which had been offering “mother tongue” classes had withdrawn their funding over the past couple of years so they could concentrate on teaching English.
These included Wolverhampton, Newham in east London, Rochdale, and Ealing in west London, which had been funding lessons in Armenian, Assyrian, Tamil and Somali. An Ealing Council spokeswoman it stopped its service because “we decided it was more of a priority to support people to feel more confident in speaking and writing in English”.
However, a number of other councils have continued the policy. As well as Tower Hamlets, they include Islington in north London, which gives £160,000 a year to “supplementary schools”, its neighbours Camden and Haringey, and Manchester.
Bradford Metropolitan Council says on its website that “we promote the teaching and learning of the mother tongue mostly in places of worship or community centres” and that it has been helping supplementary schools since 1983. The Sunday Express gave the council 10 days to say how much it gave in grants last year, but it declined saying too many staff were off on half-term breaks.
Councils and academics claim that the funding helps children become bilingual which boosts educational attainment later in life.
However, David Goodhart, the director of the think tank Demos and who is currently writing a book about post-war immigration in Britain, said the councils’ policies were “barmy”. He said that while it was quite legitimate for children of migrant families to learn their ancestral language for GCSEs and to retain a link with their heritage, it was wrong that taxpayers were being forced to fund private tuition for those purposes.
He said: “If parents want their children to retain those links, then it really should be done privately or through the voluntary sector. This seems to be a kind of multiculturalism that encourages separateness and not a kind that helps launch children into wider society where fluency in English is so vital for social mobility and integration.”
Peter Golds, the leading Tory councillor in Tower Hamlets, said: “Over past centuries this country has welcomed numerous immigrants which has affected our language, cooking and culture.
“One thing they all had in common was whilst remaining true to their own heritage, they became part of the local community, by learning to speak English and making sure their children spoke English. Schools are where languages should be taught: a local authority should not be handing money to unqualified people to teach languages.
“In a difficult economic climate, which is not going to change quickly, regardless of who forms the national government, young people need to be fluent in the language of their own country.”
A Tower Hamlets Council spokesman said: “We teach community languages for two reasons: proficiency in a mother tongue aids with proficiency in a second language. And secondly, pride and knowledge in your own background aids in promoting community cohesion.”
Trial by Jeory 
People are absolutely obsessed with denying things to others that they don’t benefit from themselves. Reading that piece it’s as if these ethnics (I know you don’t use that word lets not sugar coat it and pretend we’re being respectable) don’t contribute to local rates. If little Humphrey and Tabatha aren’t getting any goodies nobody else should either?
Why shouldn’t councils fund programs in an atmosphere that best maximises take up by x demographic group? If that happens to be a Mosque or a ‘community centre’ so what? I’m up north at the moment and I run A-level revision sessions and there are many White working class kids (who get absolutely nothing as a group by the way) who would really benefit from these sorts of programs. That isn’t to say you deny opportunities to kids that are currently receiving help, we ought to be extending the programs to reach other kids who would benefit. I think all councils should be running things like this. If you want to maximise ‘added value’ then in many instances your going to have to work with community organisations.
“Some of Britain’s poorest councils have spent millions of pounds providing after-school tuition in languages such as Bengali, Urdu and Arabic at mosques and community centres. Despite problems with English literacy in their areas, they claim the policy “celebrates diversity”, promotes “community cohesion” and helps children prepare for early GCSEs in the language they speak at home”.
Don’t they do those things? It’s as if you’re saying it’s either or, or that there should be a stress on English for extra curricular classes. The whole point of extra curricular is that it’s a bit different to what you do at school. Furthermore, these councils are fulfilling a vital service children because this is likely to be their only way of obtaining the new English Baccalaureate without which they will not be able to get into a Russell Group University from 2012 (or most others). The English Baccalaureate is going to be a huge stumbling block for working class kids of all backgrounds many Colleges/sixth forms don’t even run contemporary modern languages and the ones that do don’t fund them properly.
“In Tower Hamlets, east London, where the level of English is so poor among some pupils entering primary school that translators are needed, the council spends £185,000 a year providing free Bengali lessons after school hours”.
I don’t see the point you’re making here. These private lessons are not compulsory. Don’t you think our youngsters are capable of learning two languages at the same time?
“It has distributed £1.3million to about 40 community groups since 2006.”
So what? I might add that the Dockers Club also recently received funding from the council and it serves the white working class community in the borough very well. Id much rather real community organisations like that get funding than the monstrosity that is Altab Ali Park.
Also I think I’m right in saying not a single kid from the borough got into the new Canary Wharf school and the yummy mummies of Wapping have got their free school on Commercial Road (really appropriate site that). I dare say there will be many little Humphrey’s and Tabatha’s creaming off our money to do all manner of things after the school gates shut not just the “children of migrant families”.
I repeat David Goodhart’s quotes:
And yet I tried to learn bengali myself as it would definitly help me in my community work, and the borough offers just one beginners course in the borough and I can tell you that the teaching methods were appaling and were substandard, compared to other language classes in the borough.
Ted why do you use the ridiculous FOI service of the council when like now your links cannot be accessed. Also they usually never publish your actual written request only the reply, which without the questions can not be looked at by others who can see how the council evades the questions.
For our sake use the “whatdotheyknow.com” website which publishes your questions and also the replies, and will also alert you when they have not complied within the timeframe.
Milosh,
Teaching people a language which is not the spoken language of the country they are (now) resident in will not encourage ‘multiculturalism’. How anyone can possibly claim that it does beggars belief. And therein lies the offence; it’s not that Humphrey and Tabatha are missing out on something, it’s that public money is being spent on something that promotes divison and encourages one group to be further apart. When that group is largely incapable of communicating using the linga franca of the country it is ever more offensive.
Once again, it seems that The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is run by and for people who look to Bangladesh as their ‘home’, and who want little to do with their host nation. And it’s all conveniently funded by the indiginous population. (Anyone who can provide statistics showing tax contribution by ethnic group in Tower Hamlets has my full attention, and I am happy to retract that statement when it is proven wrong.)
Tim
Tim:
“ Teaching people a language which is not the spoken language of the country they are (now) resident in will not encourage ‘multiculturalism’ ”.
Nowhere in my response did I make the case for extracurricular classes based on multiculturalism. I doubt that non Bengali children would be banned from taking up these free classes perhaps we ought to encourage them to broaden their horizons a little and take up some of these languages. Especially via a supplementary route. Are Supplementary classes restricted to one particular background? If so then just change that part rather than criticise the whole system.
Tim:
“And therein lies the offence; it’s not that Humphrey and Tabatha are missing out on something, it’s that public money is being spent on something that promotes divison and encourages one group to be further apart”.
I don’t see how teaching young people a language whether it’s their mother tongue or some other language promotes ‘division’ and ‘encourages one group to be further apart’. How so? I think you’re bringing in other problems associated with multiculturalism like not requiring people to have good English before getting citizenship or street signs and leaflets being in multiple languages etc. Teaching X demographic group a language in out of school hours only enhances their prospects.
The fact that they may have ‘poor English’ has nothing to do with the extra study and everything to do with the English provision within school time and the support they get at home. We need less overcrowding at home so youngsters have a study space extra English support etc. None of those things should come at the expense of gaining an extra language and additional skills.
Tim:
“Once again, it seems that The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is run by and for people who look to Bangladesh as their ‘home’, and who want little to do with their host nation”.
That is what this is about really. “Tower Hamlets is run by and for people who look to Bangladesh as their ‘home’ ”. You should have just kicked off by saying that. Would you like to send them back? “and who want little to do with their host nation” you make them sound like parasites.
Almost all young Bengalis in the borough will be born here this is their home it’s their country. If they lack x skill for whatever reason the state has an obligation to help redress that shortfall. That is completely separate to extra goods. The coalition’s Free school and Academy policy is the real divisive tool not these sorts of supplementary initiatives. When middle class white folk (and it will be, in the case of the Wapping Free school that’s exactly what it is) get together and set up a free school will they want any of these inarticulate Bengalis messing up their statistics? Or even white working class kids for that matter? We need more of these supplementary initiatives not less. The IDEA stores in part fulfil that function and ought to be better publicised and extended .
Tim:
“And it’s all conveniently funded by the indiginous population. (Anyone who can provide statistics showing tax contribution by ethnic group in Tower Hamlets has my full attention, and I am happy to retract that statement when it is proven wrong.)”.
What’s with all the sugar coating say what you mean? You mean white folks right? Side-point, England virtually pays for the social security for the Welsh and Scottish. White folks pay for everything and the ethnics just take take take? On the point of tax contribution the fact that ethnic minorities may pay less is probably due to them being poorer, it’s not an innate characteristic. Ironically if you want ethnic minorities to contribute more financially to society then they need to be employable and skilled- up which is exactly what supplementary initiatives etc help to do.
Tax contribution isn’t the only way you can contribute to society. Have you ever been to the Royal London Hospital? Not too many White Drs and Nurses in there. I felt like I was in another country!
You sound more like a James Folgate than a Tim if I’m honest.
Milosh,
As an exercise in obfuscation and missing the point, your post is a gem. I would have laughed, were it not for the fact that I think you are serious and your mindset typifies that of those who are behind ‘barmy’ initiatives like this.
Every single point you raise in your post was covered in the one of mine you quoted. Please go and re-read it and think again about your response.
Given your reluctance (or inability) to argue coherently I’ll not bother responding to anything else you post on this thread. If you cannot see the damaging and wasteful nature of policies such as this, even when explained (twice) by Ted, David Goodhart, me and James Folgate (thank you for the compliment in comparing me with him by the way) then I doubt anything more I say will make much difference.
Tim.
There is no justification for learning Bengali – even less for learning Sylheti – if your intention is to reside and work in the UK as a British Citizen. Forget all the bullshit you’ve heard surrounding this policy because I can tell you it has only one intention – the siphoning off of ever more public money which can be channelled into ethnically exclusive Bengali hands.
This sort of thing is not stand alone – I will give another example.
My Housing Association was advertising several vacancies for a “liaison officer” a couple of years ago. The job was for several people to liaise between the building contractors and housing association residents.
At the very end of the job specification the advert said, “Successful candidates will be bilingual in Sylheti and English.” I received clarification on this and only people who were fluent in Sylheti would be considered.
Now in Banglatown perhaps this sounds reasonable enough, until you think;
a) How many households are there in Tower Hamlets where nobody at all speaks English? Or another way; how many households are there in this borough where not a single member has a job (where they speak English) or is in school? Very few.
b) How many of these Bengali monoglots living alone have no family, friends or neighbours who could translate for them when the need arises? Even fewer if any.
c) All the other staff (bar one) at the housing association are already of Bengali origin so surely couldn’t one of them cover the very few households containing a monoglot with no family or friends.
And then if you turn it on its head:-
How many English people are there in London who can speak either Bengali or Sylheti – the answer is very few or none. Compare that with the number of Bengali origin people in London who can speak English – the answer is hundreds of thousands.
Thus the clear intention and end result of this policy is to subject non-Bengali people to racial discrimination. It is jobs for the boys. The same goes for these unqualified “Bengali language teachers”.
The other effect of these policies which would suit groups like the IFE is increased separation, more dependence and less integration into mainstream British society. No wonder Lutfur et all are in favour.
This “teaching Bengali” idea is founded in precisely the same agenda as the Bengali-only jobs racket and like the latter it is dressed up in such a way as to make it seem perfectly reasonable to soggy-biscuit SWP people but the net results are always the same – channel money and resources to just one community at the detriment of all others.
Ted
You certainly snare a fair number of vitriolic antagonists for your readers to enjoy. Their distinguishing mark is anonymity (e.g., Milosh), outrageous snorts and objurgations, and always choking with moral indignation. They wear their prejudices like a comic badge of high office; always incapable of imagining a balanced rational argument, and hence incapable of rendering any form of rational argument themselves. In my humble view, anonymity and free speech make awkward bedfellows.
Moving on from the subject of minority antagonists, would you correct the broken links to the FoI material you refer to? Of course it’s disappointing that it was necessary to exercise the FoI Act to expose the Council’s use of Grant funding, but whatever it takes to shed some light on the darker side of this regime. As suggested, consider using, “whatdotheyknow.com” website in future.
Whatever a Tower Hamlets Council ‘spokesman’ said is immaterial. We need to hear from our appointed representatives, i.e., Councillors, not (anonymous) clerks in civil service who all too often speak with the airy doctrine of a sociology graduate steeped in naivety and dangerously adrift from the real issues facing our community. Is Peter Golds the only muckraker in council? Let’s hear what our Ward Cllr’s have to say on the issue. Don’t forget, they are accountable to us, not the Mayor or their political paymaster. At least that’s how it ought to be in the society that I want to be part of. For my small part, I’ll write to my three Cllrs: Rania Khan, Khales Uddin Ahmed, and Helal Uddin. I believe it’s important that the constituents in my Ward know what their Cllr’s view on this issue is. I’ll post their response on my own site. If they have either no comment or issue with public funds being used in this way, it would be of grave concern. On the other hand, if it is shown that Councillors can’t control the way public funds are spent, there is an even greater cause for concern.
The council’s link is broken and they tell me they’re working on it. I’d try a bit later. Whatdotheyknow.com is v good but it’s also has that unfortunate quality for a journalist – that everyone else can get the info at the same time as you!
It would also be interesting to know the content of some of the teaching especially when done madrassars. Given that the council is controlled by the IFE, which is a front for Jamaat I Islam, it is very likely that along with language skills will be anti semitic propaganda and calls for Jihad. How long before one of these pupils straps on a suicide vest and goes onto a tube train?
Interesting that one of the only other councils to indulge in this waste of public money is Islington represented in part by that well know anti semite Jeremy Corbyn. I see he is still defending holocaust deniers. Couple of good articles on http://www.hurryupharry.org especially the one by Andrew Gilligan about Bangladeshi war criminals and Tower Hamlets council. A rattling god read from Andrew as always.
There are a couple of other aspects to this: the money is being given through the grants system to small community groups–the full list is here and here on
The above mentioned both links do not work.
Sorry – not my fault: the council is trying to fix the problem. If not by tomorrow, I’ll upload them as full documents when I get into my day job office.
@ Tim not really, it didn’t take long – I touch type it’s one of the skills I picked up at Raines Lodge a local community center. You didn’t really answer any of the criticisms but if you don’t want to let facts interrupt the flow of your posts that’s fine. You’re the one making unsubstantiated bigoted comments. I don’t see how I could have been any clearer after quoting you paragraph by paragraph. Meh.
@Grenville Mills
No moral indignation I just don’t see why Tim was dressing up what was a very simple argument. James F has cut straight to the point we can all see what he’s about don’t sugar coat things. You’ve singled me out because I don’t use my full name Who is ‘Tim’ ? I don’t write on this blog to self promote – my full name is in my email which Ted can see but just to let you know im’a nobody lol. You’ve chosen to promote yourself via your Twitter account I don’t really want to do that.
_____
The bottom line for me is when all said and done this is about a few after school clubs where kids who have nothing get an hour or so extra tuition in a language and probably some other stuff. Taking it away makes you a little mean spirited in my opinion. It would be more productive to offer suggestions for improvement rather than getting into to a tizzy over how and where a service is delivered. Or even advocate similar programs for others.
I think many people are more concerned with attacking a particular group of people in the borough – that’s fine but don’t dress it up to try and make it respectable. People have already started talking about madrassars and the council being controlled by the IFE which isn’t really appropriate in my opinion.
Our new Canary Wharf College: http://www.canarywharfcollege.co.uk/page/?title=Home&pid=1
Where all the Bengali children? I can’t spot a single one. It doesn’t look too representative of our borough isn’t that a ‘waste’ of our money? Did the money that would have gone to a comprehensive school get spent on those lovely new IPADs?
Whist you can’t tell social class by a photograph I’ll go out on a limb here and say that very few of those kids will be white working class. So here we have a group of middle class people essentially siphoning off public money. The exact same thing will happen with the new Wapping Free School. It’s not just ethnic minorities drifting away becoming separate and it’s not fair to demonise one particular community.
Sorry Tim if you thought me a bit rude i was in a mood.
As I understand it the English Baccalaureate is a performance measure for schools so any qualifications that youngsters get after-hours won’t count towards anything.
If there is an argument for funding language tuition for the EB then the council should be using the money to fund access to languages in schools.
Let’s also remember that in Tower Hamlets (and in other councils – the piece didn’t refer only to TH) it is not a straight White UK/Bengali split. Why isn’t the council funding language courses for Chinese or Japanese kids? Or the growing range of East European kids (including Russian). And what about the longstanding black community who will have come from a variety of countries.
Where is the clear line explaining how the council has reached its decision on what languages are acceptable to fund private/extra-curricular provision of and what aren’t?
To be fair, you’ll see from the FoI when the council fixes the link, that a grant of some £3,000 was given to a Chinese community group in Limehouse. Somali is also taught.
But the point is surely this: that the money, if it is to be spent, would be better directed at improving English. Making English the ‘mother tongue” should be the priority of the state: that’s how we would encourage social mobility and attainment.
I completely agree and speak from family experience.
… and that is surely the central issue at stake here. Certainly there may be other subsiduary issues, but anyone who focusses on those at the expense of this salient fact is ‘barmy’ (to borrow a polite phrase.)
My last comment was being written at the same time as Milosh’s one. The fact is that the pictures of the kids at Canary Wharf College include a range of black and Chinese/Japanese faces and I certainly can’t tell what social class they’re from.
Milosh is obviously ignoring the full range of ethnic backgrounds of children in the borough and my point remains: on what grounds has the council decided which languages are appropriate for it to fund.
My real reason for coming back, though, was to ask one question (for which you will have to forgive my ignorance).
I presume that the out of hours language tuition in the mosques and community groups is equally and fully accessible to girls (just as they would legally be obliged to be taught languages in schools)?
@ eastendersscriptwriterscouldn’tmakeitup I did make the class comment tongue in cheek ! Milosh : “Whilst you can’t tell social class by a photograph I’ll go out on a limb” <<<< That's actually what I said.
How many of the white children do you think are on free school meals (if any!) ? How many of the children at that school are even Tower Hamlets residents? There have been rumours that not a single TH kid got a place at the school.
There are like 2 brown faces and 2 East asian and they're all used prominently on the main page ! Nice. If the college has managed to find East Asian children and African/Caribbean children who make up what 2? 3% of the borough im aghast that they can't seem to attract any Bengalis. Why is that? Increasingly these sorts of initiatives won't want 'difficult kids' messing up their statistics. That is the contrast i was trying to make with previous posters who seem to think supplementary schools are bad for community cohesion etc.
The College is not representative and we'll see more of this i think.
@eastendersscriptwriterscouldn'tmakeitup
"As I understand it the English Baccalaureate is a performance measure for schools so any qualifications that youngsters get after-hours won’t count towards anything" If there is an argument for funding language tuition for the EB then the council should be using the money to fund access to languages in schools".
You won't be able to get into any half decent university without a language from 2012 officially. Many universities are now making language a precondition. These extra classes target kids from x background with a little extra provision that will increase the likelihood of them passing their language gcse at school or even taking a language gcse at an independent centre. This is exactly what polish youngsters have been doing where i am they get taught in a catholic community centre and take the exam at their school but get the teaching somewhere else.
There is no point pumping the money in to generic school provision because they tend not to have the facilities and the space language. Should be taught in very small ability groups not on a comprehensive model for example.
I completely agree that other languages and other groups should be targeted as i said in my first post white working class kids particularly white working class boys (who i work with) get nothing. The IDEA store initiative was a way to reach that group/others but it's gone done the toilet since LR took over.
More provision not less! Look at the money we spent on that stupid park off bricklane or on the park in Shadwell on Glamis road that nobody uses !
My mother and grandmother were both French language teachers and managed to teach in schools which had the facilities and the space for languages. (And they taught all abilities and were successful in normal class sizes – my grandmother even taught in the East End between the wars).
So why do schools now not have the facilities? And surely transferring funding into the schools should enable them to develop the facilities?
And no answer to my question about access to full language teaching for girls – I look forward to an answer.
“as i said in my first post white working class kids particularly white working class boys (who i work with) get nothing.”
– Good point Milosh, well done.
James are you a spitalfields housing association tenant?
@eastendersscriptwriterscouldn’tmakeitup
The comprehensive model isn’t ideal for language when you’re in an environment where many students don’t want to be there especially when many students don’t see how it’s relevant. If you have a couple of bad apples in the room teaching a language will be very difficult – more so than Geography or History because of the oral and interactive nature of the lesson.
I think that’s why so many inner city schools ran down modern languages under Labour because it was just too difficult given the youngsters they were working with and they weren’t getting much back on the investment in terms of grades. Perhaps they should have tried harder but that’s a different discussion.
That’s a terrible generalisation but I think that’s essentially what happened. The old standard used to be English Maths and Science grade C there was no need to bother with a language. Those schools and boroughs are now in a terrible position because their students are less likely to secure the EBAC which will be used in rankings /admissions. This is really going to be a serious impediment for inner city kids getting into a Russell Group University or even meeting basic applicant standards and any extra provision around any language should be encouraged and extended.
On the facilities point teaching methods have really changed I don’t teach languages but I’ve observed those lessons they’re delivered by whiteboards computers headsets interactive networking etc. If you pump money into the school network that’s what it will be spent on. Youngsters won’t engage these days with some stiff at the front talking a foreign language.
The strength of a supplementary route is that you weed out disruptive students because initiatives are opt in – not out and you can teach very cost effectively. That’s not a nice way of putting it but if your objective is added value around language that’s essentially what you’re going to have to do. You could pump more money into comprehensive schools but that’s not on the table.
I’m not sure about the girls point; the vast majority of supplementary schools I’ve come across in Tower Hamlets seem to be for boys.
And is there not a concern about the lack of Ofsted inspections? And vetting of tutors?
If you look at some of the Grant Panel minutes you’ll see that the only time councillors actually pipe up is when there is some refusal by officers to make a grant. In several cases I looked at, the officers had turned down an application because they had genuine concerns that the community group in question was not financially viable and relying far too much on the council funding. But councillors over-rode those concerns and ordered officers to revisit the application and award the requested amount because they were “far more familiar” with the organisation he and that some had difficulty submitting proper forms.
The cynic might be forgiven for thinking that these grants are being delivered to fund jobs and votes.
“The cynic might be forgiven for thinking that these grants are being delivered to fund jobs and votes.”
I’ve been called cynical before, and it looks like it’s happening again. To quote my friend(/alter ego) above:
“Forget all the bullshit you’ve heard surrounding this policy because I can tell you it has only one intention – the siphoning off of ever more public money which can be channelled into ethnically exclusive Bengali hands. ”
Tim
“I’m not sure about the girls point; the vast majority of supplementary schools I’ve come across in Tower Hamlets seem to be for boys.”
That doesn’t surprise me. So potentially Humphrey, Tabatha and little Lutfur will be able to gain a wide education, access the English Baccalaureate and get into good universities but young Rania may not.
Apologies to everyone for keeping this string going for longer than maybe it ought to but I feel I need to respond, as the person who raised the question.
Schools have a legal requirement to provide an education to boys and girls equally up to age 16.
Maybe the FOI links that Ted has been unable to post yet will show for certain how much funding has gone to language teaching outside school that is accessible to the same standard for boys and girls.
The other side of the coin is that there is also a legal requirement for every child up to 16 to attend school and parents can be prosecuted for keeping them away. Whereas there is no such legal requirement for supplementary extracurricular classes – parents can choose whether to send their kids to classes. Therefore anyone who places less value on a girl’s education is free to keep them at home.
(And, to be scrupulously fair, there are people in all communities, including a few white UK individuals, who consider it more important to educate boys, even in this day and age.)
I consider that totally unacceptable use of my council tax money.
Those links are working now.
Since when was Tabatha a boy’s name??
@Steve. The original complaint was that the article was biased as there wouldn’t have been an outcry if the council was funding after-school lessons for Humphrey and Tabatha. To quote the last line of Milosh’s original post:
“I dare say there will be many little Humphrey’s and Tabatha’s creaming off our money to do all manner of things after the school gates shut not just the “children of migrant families”.”
The point I was trying (rather cackhandedly) to make was that if the council is funding after-school classes for wider groups of kids then Humphrey and Tabatha will both gain because the providers of such classes will lay them on for boys and girls and it won’t cross the mind of the parents not to send both kids to them.
Whereas if Milosh’s answer to my question about Bengali language classes is borne out then young Lutfur may gain useful qualifications but young Rania won’t, either because classes are not available or because her parents may not choose to send her.
Having looked at the FOI links (thanks Ted) there only seems to be one group that is expressly for women to which a grant has been given: the Black Women’s Health and Family Support group. The remaining groups are community associations so there is no indication from the list of grants whether classes are available to boys and girls equally.