(单词翻译:单击)
Education and race
教育与种族
On the road
在路上
Ethnic-minority pupils are storming ahead, thanks partly to tutors
由于家庭教师的原因,少数民族学生总能在学业上拔得头筹
Nov 16th 2013 |From the print edition
IN APRIL Kumon, a Japanese firm, opened a tuition centre in Small Heath, a poor district of Birmingham. Its lessons are fairly cheap: about £55 ($88) a month for twice-weekly English and maths classes and homework. As in many of Kumon’s 680 British outfits, its clients are diverse. Many are south Asian; a few are eastern European; none is white and British.
4月,日本公司Kumon在伯明翰市的贫困地区小希思开设了一家讲学中心
In much ofEurope, pupils from many ethnic minorities linger at the bottom of the heap, says Chris Hamnett of King’s College London. That used to be true inBritaintoo—but not any more. Every ethnic-minority group that trails white Britons in GCSE exams, normally taken at 16, is catching up. Bangladeshis used to perform worse than whites; now they do better. Indians have maintained a huge lead. All this despite the fact that ethnic minorities are poorer than average. Control for that, by looking at pupils who are entitled to free school meals, and all ethnic-minority groups now do well.
伦敦国王学院的克丽丝 哈姆尼特说,在很多欧洲国家,少数名族学生一般在底层扎堆
But some fare better than others. One difference is imported social capital: Indians, who were middle-class when they arrived inBritain, have lots. Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, who often came from rural parts of their homelands, have less. Tenure inBritainmatters too. Newcomers have immigrant aspirations but suffer from not understanding the system. Better-established folk know how things work, but may have lost some of their ambition. A few are in a sweet spot in between.
但是有些学生的遭遇比其它人更好一些
Bangladeshis certainly seem to be. They arrived in large numbers from the 1970s and are now settled, largely inLondon. Plenty are still poor: half fall into the lowest income quintile. But the parents of many children now in school grew up speaking English and attended British schools. They not only understand the system but are shaping it. In 1987 the Collective of Bangladeshi School Governors was set up in theLondonborough of Tower Hamlets, where a fifth ofBritain’s Bangladeshis live. Shahanur Khan, its chairman, encourages parents to get involved in local schools. Parents are increasingly pushy: one mother recently complained to him that her children were not getting enough homework.
孟加拉人明显就是这种类型
Somalis arrived much more recently: just 9% of Somali pupils were born inBritaincompared with 83% of Bangladeshis. And they struggle. Many parents came as asylum-seekers and speak little English. Just one in ten Somalis is in full-time work. But their children are faring better, along with other black Africans. In Lambeth, a borough ofLondon, 61% of Somali pupils got five good GCSEs last year, up from 11% in 2007. Schools employ Somali teaching assistants to help parents and children with their English. The council organises an awards ceremony for outstanding students. And, increasingly, parents pay for extra tuition.
索马里人则是最近一段时间内较多的移民者:相比于83%的孟加拉学生出生在英国,只有9%的索马里学生是这样的
That is another reason black and Asian children are doing better. Saturday schools have long been common, but parents are increasingly turning to private tutors. In a survey of 11- to 16-year-olds by the Sutton Trust, an education charity, 45% of Asian children said they received some kind of private tuition compared with 20% of white pupils. Another study suggests that Somalis are more likely to receive tuition than average, too. Supply has increased along with demand. Karamat Iqbal, director of Forward Partnership, an education consultancy in Birmingham, sees growing numbers of Pakistani graduates, who themselves attended British schools, working as tutors.
周末学校课程已经变得很常见,但是父母渐渐得更倾向于私人教师
Black Caribbeans, a long-established group, are doing better but not dramatically so. They have mostly lost immigrant zeal: many doubt that education will make much difference to their chances in life, suggests Steve Strand, a professor of education atOxfordUniversity. And some teachers may be conflating bad behaviour (last year blackCaribbeanboys were over four times more likely to be excluded from school than Bangladeshi boys) with a lack of aptitude. Afro-Caribbeans are less likely to be entered into higher tiers for exams where they could obtain the best grades.
而很早就站稳脚跟的加勒比黑人最近也表现得更加出色了但却不是那么引人注目
Job prospects for ethnic minorities are not yet improving commensurately with their school results. Despite their success in exams, Mr Khan worries that Bangladeshi students are choosing “easy” A-levels, such as sociology and psychology, which limit their options. Pakistani pupils inBirminghamare doing better, says Mr Iqbal, but too many are still driving taxis and running corner shops or cheap restaurants.
为少数名族学生准备的工作却没有随着他们学校成绩的提高而增多
Still, blacks and especially Asians are edging their way into the professions. Fully 2,087 British Pakistanis started studying law at university in 2011, up from 478 in 2000. Some of those long-held ambitions are now being realised.
黑人尤其是亚裔人仍然在让他们求职的路上缓慢前行