Diversity in the UK education system

Introduction

The attention the education system in the UK gives towards the black students is an indicator that most of the minority groups have not been enjoying their diversity. Most of them would find it hard to interact with the majority white, or feel the disgust of their ethnic background, socioeconomic status and even cultures among other things. Black students, based on their attempts to embrace diversity, stand out as a comparative case to gypsies, a minority group bearing a complex cultural setup. Same to the black students, the gypsies have lagged behind in terms of education and therefore need attention. Based on the 2011 census, it could be identified that 60% of the Roman Gypsies in United Kingdom did not have formal qualifications. While the education system fostered hiring minority teachers to bridge the attitude of diversity among black students, the same case applies to gypsies with recent improved outcomes showing an increase in diversity. While Gypsies and black students share a common experience, the discussion finds it more interesting to focus more on black students, and how the system is trying hard enough to bridge diversity among them.

The Range of Diverse Groups in Education System

Diversity emerges as one debatable area that has attracted different attention across the world. The diverse groups exhibit the differences along the dimensions of race, gender, socio-economic status, age, religious and political beliefs, ethnicity and ability among other ideologies. However, in United Kingdom, the range of diversity majorly touches on ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds as far as the education system is put into consideration. Perhaps, diversity groups realized from the education system would still reflect the ethnic structure of England (Curtis et al. 2016). According to the census conducted in2011, the population of Wales and England stood at 56.1 million. The whites emerged as the dominant group with a whopping 86%. Within this group, the majority included the White-British which constituted 80%. It is worth noting that the minority population is not well-spread across the entire country with most of them staying in the urban centers. Based on the 2011 census, the Asian and the Asian British took 7.5%, the Black-British, Caribbean, African and Black took 3.4% of the entire population with pure blacks or African taking 1.8%. The population of the ethnic minority groups is said to have increased by 5% in a span of 10 years as from 2001 to 2011 (Koshoedo et al. 2015). This also implies that the education system in United Kingdom is absorbing equivalent figures in the system while observing diversity in all aspects of life.

However, the main difference that segregates learners in the education system is the race such as being Blacks, Asians, and Whites. The education system in the United Kingdom incorporates all people from various backgrounds. The racial segregation of the people acquiring an education is high. The education in the United Kingdom has a black, and minority ethnic groups have risen to 18% from 2013 to 2018 (Adams, 2018; BBC, 2018). The increase in the number of minority groups is a demonstration of an increase in the inclusivity of all types of people. The intake at the universities and colleges for the students is high in comparison to the secondary education. The composition of the learners in this institution seeks to improve with time to ensure that all the people in the United Kingdom education systems are able to fit the classes. The composition of the people in the learning centers differs based on the types of schools differs based on the type of schools (Craft 2017). The minority groups, including the black population, have limited access to some of the prestigious learning centers. The main reason is due to the access to the funds and other factors that make it hard for the black.

The socio-economic status differentiates people based on the level of income and the lifestyle that they have. The upper class represents the people with high income and lives social life that serves people from that earning bracket. The middle class entails the people with medium lifestyle while the low-class citizens include the people that have low earnings struggling to get basic needs (Hodge, Lieberman & Murata, 2017). The black population has always been the disadvantaged group when it comes to diversity based on the fact that most of them are poor or earn little. Based on the statistics conducted in 2016, the black Caribbean boys showed low attendance and low performance in the secondary schools. Only 42% of the black Caribbean boys could attain the required level of grades as required by the education system. The trend has been persistent with black students lagging behind their peers due to such circumstances like poverty among others. While the system goes diverse, the black population seems to be far much behind and naturally excluded due to the extreme requirements of the education system which can rarely be met by the minority groups.

How the education system meets the needs of diverse groups

The education system can only be convenient and more efficient if the concerns of the diverse groups are addressed. The same case should apply to the black students in different secondary schools who also need attention similar to the one given to other ethnic groups within the United Kingdom. This is the reason as to why the education system has developed various strategies to ensure that diversity has been embraced in any educational facility. The comfort, relationship and equity of black students in secondary schools can be achieved through the first strategy, which includes hiring minority teachers bearing the minority group’s background.

Research indicates that minority, or black teachers in United Kingdom, stand a better chance of producing positive academic as well as behavioral outcomes as far as the same-race students are put into consideration. Such teachers have the right knowledge of what the minority or black students lack in their school life, life challenges, and ethnic background, believes and even the psychological demands. This means that such teachers know the appropriate means of approaching the black students, connecting with their needs, building long term relationships, revive their expectations and engage them in lucrative activities. Kirkham (2016) indicated that fairness among the diverse groups or students is a critical component that schools rarely address. The minority groups would only feel the fairness of the system by looking at the composition of the teaching staff. Based on a case study of Ashton Valley School, minority teachers understand how to make use of the sociocultural linguistic approach, which fulfills the need of identity and language among minority students, such as the black students in the UK secondary schools.

Teaching in a diverse class requires the education system to adopt the inclusive strategy. The structured diversity inclusion entails all the relevant opportunities to develop the relationships that are useful for the support of the individuals, including the black students. The critical aspect that needs to be considered is the development of the relationships among the students. Through the structured group sessions, the students are able to work on the bonds which can develop into a long term professional relationships (Buli-Holmberg & Jeyaprathaban, 2016). The inclusive interactions are not limited to the conservations between the students and the whole class. It further includes the communication and interactions between the students and other people within a learning environment. An instructor has a crucial role in ensuring that all people are able to fit within the class through interactions and questions being asked in a class session. For instance, in the situation where the students are being asked the questions, few students’ have the confidence to answer. A black student, or any other minority student, will have little confidence to respond given the position he or she has in the same class.

Westwood (2018) outlines that a bunch of black students in a typical class require more time than others in order to process the information and come up with a response. Additionally, some of the people feel that the process is risky and therefore fear to give their opinion. The fear is always cultivated through perception and a negative attitude (Buli-Holmberg & Jeyaprathaban, 2016). Therefore, the role of the UK education system in such situations is ensuring that the students feel that they are comfortable in answering some of the questions being asked during a learning session. The consideration for improvement in providing diversity interactions is meant to ensure that all people, irrespective of their abilities, feel accepted in a given society. The facilitation by the management of the school should ensure that the differences among students are appreciated and various actions are therefore adopted (Hodge, Lieberman & Murata, 2017). The main objective is ensuring that the students are able to interact with one another in the most suitable way as asserted by the inclusive strategy.

Besides, the education system brings on board the black students in UK through the diversity scheme or strategy that introduces co-curricular activities. The activities must seek to provide a social connection among the students and other stakeholders. Some of the activities that need to be planned include songs, poems, playing together and acting drama (Hodge, Lieberman & Murata, 2017). The activities help the students in bonding and establishing the a kin strengths of the individuals and how they can maximize their strengths. Additionally, the activities seek to ensure that the weaknesses of a person are eliminated through the best mechanism possible (Buli-Holmberg and Jeyaprathaban 2016). The songs and drams must ensure that they pass information that enhances the diversity of the people. It must highlight the differences between the people and the best strategies in which these can be attained through the integrative support of all the involved personnel (Croxford and Raffe 2015).

In addition, the teacher-student collaborative learning should be bolstered by the education system. This requires the teacher in a classroom to split the class into various groups that ensure that the discussion takes place. Each of the groups in the school should be facilitated by an intelligent person who is able to note the main differences and therefore act appropriately in accordance with the different people (Croxford and Raffe 2015). The rationale for splitting of classes is to ensure that the students are able to grasp content when the student ratio is smaller. At that moment these students are able to confront others since the risk of failure is reduced significantly. The skills of the leaner enable the students to get the concept as required in the curriculum (Buli-Holmberg & Jeyaprathaban, 2016). The mechanism through which this is enhanced is through the improved communication and fostered relationship by all people involved. This has ensured that the students get the time to ask for the difficult questions as well as comprehend with the major aspects involved in learning without any form of fear (Croxford, L., & Raffe, 2015).

Legislation of inclusive education

The government and other agencies in United Kingdom have enacted various legislations that seek to ensure that diversity has been embraced. The legislation that ensures the provision of equal education in the United Kingdom is the Equality Act 2010. As pointed by Gillard (2011) and Harris (2007), the regulation seeks to ensure that there is no discrimination in any way of obtaining any resource within the country. The obligations of the country towards the international human rights law seeks to ensure that there is an education for all the people, specifically children. The law has been attained with a 99% adoption rate in the primary education (Hodge, Lieberman & Murata, 2017). The data shows that many educational institutions in the United Kingdom are adopting the policy with no discrimination.

Notably, the current laws and regulation that governs education dictate that it is unlawful for education providers, either private or independent to discriminate learners based on the grounds of sex, disability, race or even disability. However, the regulation seeks to provide an exclusion for the sexuality (same sex) schools and disabled students (Greene, and Kirton, 2015; Evans, 2017). The segregation of the students, in this case, is meant to provide special education needs to the affected groups. The type of discrimination presented in this case does not seek to disrespect the other groups but provides the direction through which things can be facilitated through an easy approach (Manning et al. 2017). The exclusion of the student seeks to ensure that there is efficiency in the provision of education since mixing them would have resulted in an uncomfortable learning environment.

In order to ensure that the curriculum fits all type of people, the country has introduced multiculturalism education since the 1970s. Building from Ainscow and Sandill (2010) assertion on need for inclusivity in education system, one argues can it is part of the government regulations that seek to meet the needs of the minority students. The main issues considered to have issues are the context in which learning was taking place. The national curriculum council developed a wider curriculum that sought to broaden the scope of the shared values and appreciation of the diversity in cultural backgrounds of the different people. The implementation of the policy is evident as 95% of the local authorities have adopted the multicultural education programs as a way of dealing with the minority race (Manning et al. 2017).

In addition to the stipulated framework and guideline, the act enables the providers of education to ensure that no form of discrimination is witnessed during the recruitment and learning process. Gibson (2015) argues that the providers of education must ensure that they do not act on the way that discriminates the people, but they must also ensure that they get the right supportive framework for the leaner to develop despite the diverse backgrounds. A black student in a secondary school has the right to get better treatment from a school just like the counterparts from other races. It has acted appropriately in ensuring that the discrimination has been eliminated within the learning centers with every person having the right to get the education (Reynolds, 2018).

In order for the bonding process to occur, mutual respect among the people must adhere as it ensures that the respect of the particular group is maintained. The rationale for the introduction of the respect principle is ensuring that the bonding takes place without taking the other person as a less person (Manning et al. 2017). It helps significantly in the process as many of the people require the application of respect for them to feel safe and secure. This ensures that people have the ability to interact with each other taking precedence for the bonding process and interaction with the other people. Kimura (2014) indicated that respect is attained in a diverse environment by tolerating other people without making jokes about other people. Despite the legislation, the access to education has not been equitable in a perfect way. The students from the minority groups feel that they are discriminated. The legislation requires support for it to work efficiently in reducing discrimination for the people (Hardy and Woodcock, 2015). Various efforts are being done to ensure that the inclusiveness is achieved in the process.

Arguments for and against specialist and inclusive education provisions for black students in UK secondary schools

Specialist education provisions entail a situation where education classes are structured for the select groups without inclusive. In this case, it implies that the students are provided with the platform to study as black students alone. The inclusive environment seeks to integrate the students irrespective of the race and other differential traits (Furlong, and Lawn, 2010). Each model of learning has various advantages and demerits. The argumentation of the advantages depends on the perspective and the context in which the learning takes place.

The inclusive environment is crucial to the students as it gives them the opportunity to interact with the other students irrespective of their race. It ensures that the Black and White students are able to live in harmony learning about each other during the classroom sessions. Additionally, such variables as sexual orientation, background, culture, and religious backgrounds should not impede any one (student) from receive education (DeLuca, 2013; Hulme, and Allcock, 2010) The society encompasses people with a unique trait, and one must learn the art of living together with each other. An inclusive environment for the students enables them to live with each other together embracing each other. As pointed by Danowitz and Tuitt (2011), the inclusive environment for learning enables them to develop tolerance and acceptance. The learners in an inclusive class find it difficult to interact with the other students in the first place. However, these changes with times and the learner get used to the situation and different people with different principles and ideas. A learner develops the spirit of tolerance and acceptance among the people with time which is a unique skill in developing the interpersonal skills. Teamwork enables students to thrive in different unique ways.

Inclusive learning environment enables the learners to learn new cultures and ethnic values. Therefore, the interaction with the Whites for Black students makes the best environment through which a student can learn new languages and culture. This shall enhance the student to be conversant with other cultures thus increasing his knowledge and skills (Ainscow, and Sandill, 2010; Armstrong et al., 2016). The student adopts new behaviors and practices that cannot be obtained through the conventional learning methods. Through this mechanism, the cultural awareness is created where one gets to appreciate the values and general behaviors of the other people without bias (Banks, 2015). The practice helps adequately in addressing challenges such as racism and even sexism.

On the other hand, the specialist education provision offers some advantage in situations where the students feel that the racial differences cannot be ignored. In such a situation, a student feels that he does not belong to the classroom setting (Hardy & Woodcock, 2015). The selective classes seek to eliminate problems such as decreased participation, inadequacy and other distractions. It provides a platform for the interactions with similar people with unique traits. Unique set up provides the best environment through which they can excel without discrimination. The platform ensures that the black people get the confidence they require in order to excel. The students are allowed to share sensitive information with their counterparts, and this boosts their morale and confidence. The information is shared between the people without fear that the information might lead to additional differences (Hardy & Woodcock, 2015). The teaching methods used in this case ensure that the students get the information from their perspective. The language barriers and learning difficulties are eliminated as all the students hail from one group. Kimura (2014) argued that lessons may become insensitive towards some of the people. The selective education provision ensures that this has been minimized. Issues such as stereotypes are eliminated with the main aspects being considered in the process.

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