British National Party Public Services News Bulletin w/c June 11, 2007
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1. TEACHERS WANT TO CAP NUMBERS OF MIGRANT PUPILS IN CLASS WHO SPEAK LITTLE ENGLISH

http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=908692007

Teachers have called for a cap on the number of non-English speaking pupils allowed in the classroom, amid fears that their education is suffering. The annual conference of Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, was told that increasing economic migration, particularly from the new EU member countries, has created classes without a single child who speaks only English. A majority of delegates at the conference in Perth on Saturday passed the motion for the union to negotiate an agreed national limit. Many teachers say they are finding it increasingly difficult to balance teaching those with no English, while still educating the remainder within the curriculum, without sufficient specialist support. The motion to limit the number of pupils without English in any one class was proposed by the union's Glasgow branch, where swathes of Eastern Europeans have enrolled in the last year East Renfrewshire has seen high migration levels, with pupils who speak 40 different languages. The North-east and Aberdeen area has also been affected with large numbers of Polish children enrolling in schools. Their parents have travelled to work in the fishing and agricultural industries, and Edinburgh also has a growing Polish community.

Scottish Executive figures, released in February, show there are more than 37,700 children of an ethnic origin other than British enrolled in Scottish schools. Despite the influx, primary schools where dozens of languages are spoken often have to share just two or three specialist "English as an additional language" teachers. Marjorie Bell, who proposed the motion, said: "There are large numbers of children of migrant workers arriving over a short period of time. If a school like mine, which has years of experience teaching bilingual children, is struggling to cope, how are others with less experience coping? "How many local authorities are facing up to the realities and providing sufficient and appropriate support?" She added that although her school was coping at the moment, if numbers of non-English speaking children increase, other pupils could suffer, and parents were starting to show concern. Mrs Bell said: "A disproportionate amount of time is spent dealing with these children and there are increasing murmurs of discontent from parents. There is a need in mainstream schools for a limit in the number of non-English speaking children in one class." Seconding the motion, Carolyn Ritchie, from the Glasgow association, said her school had Polish, Iraqi, Libyan and Dutch children. Some aged nine had never attended a class before coming to Scotland. And she criticised the former Scottish Executive for not acting before the new EU rules, which allowed more people to live and work here, came into force.

She said: "The Scottish Executive knew that many children with no English would be coming to Scotland - it was no surprise." Another motion, also proposed by the Glasgow branch, was passed, calling on the Scottish Executive to provide significant extra funding for English as an additional language, and bilingual services, in every council in Scotland where it is needed. The conference heard the example of one bright pupil whose lack of English meant his potential was being held back. Although he was reading Chekhov in his own language, in English he was limited to reading Harry Potter. Lesley Atkins, of the Glasgow association proposing the motion, said: "We must ensure these pupils are not excluded from the curriculum. It is their fundamental right to receive an education. "Without support from the Scottish Executive to support bilingual pupils, the structures of institutional racism will prevail." Larry Flanagan, incoming convener of the EIS education committee, said there are 137 first languages spoken by more than 28,000 pupils in Scotland, and called for them to be given the same support as Gaelic speakers. He told delegates there are twice as many Arabic speakers, three times as many Chinese speakers, six times as many Urdu speakers, and eight times as many Punjabi speakers as people who speak Gaelic in Scotland. He added: "They also need investment just as the Gaelic speakers do.

This is a problem where only lip-service is being paid by politicians." Graham Dane, of St Augustine's High School in Edinburgh, said: "We are witnessing a major democratic change and they [children of economic migrants] are not receiving a satisfactory education. We are quite happy to take their taxes and they deserve something in return." A Scottish government spokesman said: "We want to deliver more opportunities for Scots from all backgrounds to succeed. We are planning to work with education professionals to stretch every child to achieve their full potential, providing them with the individual attention and support they need to flourish." • The amount of official material being translated by bodies such as councils should be cut to encourage immigrants to learn English, Ruth Kelly has said. The UK communities secretary said that there were cases - such as in a casualty ward - where translation was necessary. But she said learning and using the English language was "key" to helping migrants to integrate. • IN MARJORIE Bell's primary-four class in Annette Street Primary School in Glasgow's Govanhill, there are no white, "monolingual" pupils who speak only English. The school has a long tradition of serving a predominantly Asian community and is, therefore, well experienced in teaching bilingual children. In the school's official inspection report in December, it was noted that 25 per cent of the roll had joined from Eastern Europe in the past year, and meeting the needs of non-English speaking pupils was noted as a key strength. But increasing economic migration to Scotland from a wide range of countries means the school is stretched to its limit. Of Mrs Bell's 32 pupils, half joined the class without any English.

There are six Malaysian pupils, ten Slovakians, and until last week, one Somali pupil, as well as bilingual Urdu and Punjabi speakers. Many of the non-English speakers are now beginning to develop a good level of English, but Mrs Bell believes creating an "immersion unit", where they could focus on learning English first, would allow them to access the curriculum more quickly. She said: "It is frustrating. The more time you have to spend with these children, the less time you have to spend with other children who also have needs. You go home at the end of the day and feel you haven't done right by any of them." The school has two full-time English language assistants and a principal teacher in English as an additional language, who comes to the school three days a week, but Mrs Bell feels it is not enough. She said: "The new Scottish Executive should be looking at this on a national basis urgently."

2. HOW TRENDY TEACHING 'GIVES PUPILS HUGE GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE'

It's now clear that Government uses schools for political indoctrination, even if this means students are barely able to read and count. What is upsetting is the lack of will to address this problem and for a very good reason: the higher the number of students with lack of basic skills, the easier is to convince reluctant voters to accept unlimited mass immigration.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?
in_article_id=461389&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

Teaching in state schools is being stripped of facts and figures as politicians hijack the curriculum to promote fashionable causes, a report has warned. Traditional subjects such as history, geography and science are being "corrupted" by political agendas, claimed the report from think-tank Civitas. Pupils leave school with huge gaps in their knowledge because lessons have been manipulated to promote trendy causes such as gender awareness, the environment and anti-racism. It means "educational apartheid" is now opening up between state and independent schools, where academic content has been retained. The assault on the curriculum comes in a subject-by- subject critique titled The Corruption of the Curriculum, which was written for the right-leaning Civitas by seven teachers and academics.

"Teachers are expected to help to achieve the Government's social goals instead of imparting a body of academic knowledge to their students," it says. It came as the General Teaching Council demanded the scrapping of testing for under-16s. There are fears that youngsters are being drilled to pass exams at the expense of deeper learning. The Government rejected the call - and yesterday it also dismissed the Civitas report, claiming it was "based on a profound misunderstanding of the national curriculum and modern teaching methods" According to the report, history has become so divorced from facts and chronology pupils are learning about it through works of fiction, such as Lord of the Rings. Rather than learning about key personalities and landmark events, pupils study through 24 different politically- correct "perspectives" including gender and ethnic diversity.

The most popular history syllabus in the country requires 15 and 16-year- olds to write about the September 11 atrocities in the United States from the point of view of terrorists, said Chris McGovern, director of the History Curriculum Association. Writing in the report, he said the Government-backed Schools History Project invites pupils to study speeches by Osama bin Laden without balancing material from America. In English, pupils are being denied the chance to study classic authors such as Spenser, Milton and Pope and are instead steered towards more "relevant" writers, claimed Michele Ledda, an Italian who teaches English. "The English curriculum has been changed beyond recognition, from the academic subject it once was, into an unsystematic, if not altogether incoherent, range of activities for the development of isolated skills," he said. Science is becoming a forum for debating issues such as abortion, global warming, GM crops and nuclear power, according to the report. One independent school head to warn of a "terrifying absence of proper science" in the latest GCSEs.

This attempt to make science more popular has backfired, it claims, since fewer pupils want to study the subject at a higher level than previously. In geography, pupils are being taught how to be global citizens rather than learning objectively about the world. They are being encouraged to conform to moral dictats about saving the planet, fair trade and over-consumption instead of being given the knowledge to make their own decisions. Tory schools spokesman Nick Gibb described the report as a "devastating critique". "We've got to move away from the anti-knowledge, anti-intellectual approach of many education reformers who have been far too influential in the development of the curriculum over the last 20 years," he said. "This has had a deeply corrosive effect on standards of education in this country." A DfES spokesman said: "It is insulting to the hard work of pupils and teachers to claim that the education system is just a political football to promote political or social goals."

3. TEACHERS 'DRIVEN TO DESPAIR' BY UNRULY PUPILS

Lack of discipline has negative effects well beyond schools. For that reason a BNP Government would get rid of all the liberal laws that are now making impossible for teachers to impose discipline and give them the power to do it.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=894912007

Teachers yesterday detailed the rising tide of violence they face in the classroom and called for greater support in dealing with attacks on staff. The Education Institute of Scotland's conference in Perth heard stories of teachers driven to despair as they struggled to cope with disruptive pupils as young as five. There were tales of school furniture being thrown around, of teachers being punched and headbutted, and of classrooms becoming places where verbal abuse, defiance and non-co-operation were "routine". Willie Hart, secretary of the Glasgow association, called on the EIS to instruct its ruling council to "revise and update advice on incidents of violence and aggression towards staff in schools". He said he had spoken to teachers who were at the end of their tether because of the level of violence and abuse they faced on a daily basis. "One of the most disturbing and saddest things I have to do as a local association secretary, all too often, is to deal with members who are absolutely at their wits' end because of the violent incidents and the violent conduct they are facing on a daily basis as they go about their work," he said. "It is disturbing because of the frequency that these events occur.

It's disturbing because of the nature of some of the events encountered and, in particular, the growing trend for children in the five-, six- and seven-year-old bracket who are out of control and acting in a violent manner towards their peers and towards their teachers." He described one incident in which a teacher with 20 years' experience had been forced to take prescribed medication so she could deal with the behaviour of one disruptive child. Mr Hart said the teacher had finally been signed off sick when the child punched her in the eye. He said staff were invariably told the ultimate responsibility lay with them, and this had a corrosive effect on teacher morale. "It becomes tempting for staff to despair and it becomes tempting for me to despair," he said. "It's very sad because there are children who appear to be wholly outwith the normal rein of society and because I am witnessing experienced professionals being destroyed on a daily basis by the conduct they are having to deal with." Delegates unanimously supported his motion, and Susan Quinn, a delegate from Glasgow, said peer-on-peer violence was also on the increase.

Local authorities were making it harder for schools to get additional support to tackle pupils' behaviour, and she argued it was down to the EIS to give teachers the tools to gather the type of evidence needed to overcome this obstacle. She said: "We need to be sure how schools 'evidence' incidents, because many local authorities are putting together plans whereby schools have to prove to the nth degree that this child has an additional support need in the area of behaviour before they will provide the appropriate resources."

4. £1,000 FINES FOR 'OFFENDERS' ON THE BIN POLICE'S SECRET LIST OF SHAME

This is another unacceptable erosion of individual freedom.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=461012&in_page_id=1770

Householders who leave their rubbish in the wrong bins for collection are being put on a secret database. A team of up to 12 bin police, who travel with refuse collectors, compile the list of repeat offenders, who can be fined £1,000 if they get enough ticks against their name. Every resident is monitored by the ‘Waste Advisers’ who have the power to search rubbish and report back to a computer database. They are also in charge of ‘educating’ householders who step out of line. The Big Brother scheme has been slammed as yet another infringement on privacy, following on the heels of the ‘spy in the sky’ technology used by council tax inspectors and the controversial bin chips that monitor the amount of waste disposed of by householders. More than 500,000 homes in the Test Valley Council area of Hampshire are being scrutinised by the waste advisers. Binmen themselves are also being trained to monitor and report on the waste disposal of householders. Paul Bettison, chairman of the environment board at the Local Government Association, admitted he ‘would not be surprised’ if other councils had similar schemes.

The Test Valley database only came to light after a report by the head of the environment section to the main council. The report read: ‘The waste advisers have maintained a database of repeat offenders and the pleasing aspect of this is that as a result of follow-up letters and visits the numbers of repeat offenders have reduced dramatically.’ Test Valley Council leader Ian Carr said his offenders’ database contained the name of every resident. Those who put out their rubbish on the wrong day, in the wrong bag or at the wrong time receive a tick against their address. The worst offenders face a costly penalty. The council is now considering installing computers in binmen’s cabs so information can be sent immediately to the central database. Mr Carr said of the ticks: ‘The more you get, the closer you get to getting a fine. It is a racking-up system.’ And of the residents, he admitted: ‘We do not tell them explicitly they are on the list. But we do write and tell them they are doing it wrong.