Caribbean students are still behind

Despite recent news that minority pupils are surpassing white British students, black Caribbean students continue to rank at the bottom of the government’s GCSE league tables according to the Department for Education’s 2012/2013 statistics.

In 2012/13. the percentage of black Caribbean pupils achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grade A* to C or equivalent including English and mathematics GCSEs is approximately 20 percentage points lower than the national average. Furthermore, black Caribbean pupils are still more than three times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than the school population as a whole.

Today, Baroness Floella Benjamin will be asking the government to identify their plan to raise the academic attainment levels of ALL students, especially those of Caribbean descent.

Benjamin said:

Education is the passport to opportunities, so we must ensure that all children reach their potential so they are equipped to take that important journey full of confidence and high esteem,”

In a speech last year, Baroness Benjamin also spoke about the importance of cultural education within the curriculum. She said:

Exposure to art and cultural experiences is the perfect way to build confidence, satisfy our well-being and stimulate the imagination, and the earlier children are provided with this type of stimulus the better.”

Baroness Benjamin’s interest in education has seen her on the "4Rs Commission established by the Liberal Democrats to look into primary education in the UK and she has also been the vice-president of NCH Action for Children and Barnardo's.

Question Time in the House of Lords begins at 2:30pm on Tuesday, 8th April 2014.

Lord John Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, will be responding to the question.

Francine Fernandes