Gypsy and Roma pupil results gap ‘remains unacceptably wide’
THE gap between the educational attainment of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller learners and other pupils “remains unacceptably wide”, a report from the Welsh Government’s Children, Young People and Education Committee has found.
The report summarises the findings of a short inquiry launched in October 2016 into the impact of the Welsh Government’s amalgamation of previously ring-fenced grants into the new Education Improvement Grant (EIG) on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller, and minority ethnic children.
No “clear evidence” was found by the committee that the new model was directly linked to having a detrimental impact on the educational outcomes of these minority groups, but the report stated that the Welsh Government “cannot be satisfied” that there “has not been any negative impact”.
Recommendations centre on improvements to how educational attainment among minority groups are monitored and evaluated.
The committee found that “Welsh Government should monitor outcomes of the EIG more closely and hold local authorities and regional consortia to account on how the money is benefitting Gypsy, Roma and traveller, and minority ethnic groups that have lower than average attainment.”
Children, Young People and Education Committee Member, Darren Millar AM, Welsh Conservative Shadow Secretary for Education and Children said: “The attainment gap between some minority groups and other pupils in Welsh schools is totally unacceptable.
“The current funding model isn’t working and there is a lack of accountability in the system to ensure that resources are spent effectively.
“The Welsh Labour-led Government must put an end to the postcode lottery in terms of support and work towards a more consistent approach.
“The Cabinet Secretary must also extend targeted help to young people from low attaining groups to enable them to access support in post16 environments such as Further and Higher Education.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said results achieved by pupils helped by the fund has increased from 15.5 % achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C including English/Welsh and Mathematics in 2015, to almost 25% in 2016.
“While there has been an increase in the GCSE performance of the groups of pupils that this fund aims to support, we of course accept that there is still more work to do.
“The committee’s report raises a number of recommendations and we will respond to these in due course. The Education Secretary has already given a commitment that there will be a refreshed outcome framework in place for the new financial year and this remains the case.
“We are determined to ensure that all children, whatever their background are given every possible opportunity to reach their full potential.”
In evidence to the committee last month education secretary Kirsty Williams said: “What we do know is that, for Gypsy and Traveller children, their results at GCSE level are not where we would want them to be – far below national averages.
“But, for many other groups of children, we see Indian and Chinese-heritage children way outperforming white Welsh children, and those from a Pakistani heritage or Bangladeshi heritage catching up and, in some cases, surpassing us.
“We still have an issue with the attainment levels of black Caribbean children. Again, that’s one particular group of children who are not doing as well as we would like.
“So, I think it’s important to recognise that we can’t group all children together and that there are particular challenges for particular groups.”