Demographics of British Bangladeshis - Education

Education

In comparison with all pupils nationally in the country, Bangladeshi pupils have average attainment at the end of each key stage and achievement by pupils is steadily improving. The attainment of Bangladeshi pupils at Key Stage 1 is the considerably above the national average and this pattern can be seen in Key Stages 2 and 3. The numbers of Bangladeshi pupils who are attaining five or more A*–C grades in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) are above the national average. According to Ofsted, reports from many secondary schools showed that many Bangladeshi pupils are making significant progress compared with other groups, achieving better by the equivalent of four GCSE points. In London the pupils do better than the average of the whole city. Increasing fluency in English is playing a greater role in improved education for Bangladeshis, the progress of pupils through Key Stage 1 and 2 in English tends to be growing rapidly compared with other such subjects in school. At the end of Key Stage 2, they are attaining 11 percentage points, which is above the national average in English. This is a very considerable type of achievement when set against the fact that their peers who have English as a mother tongue are also improving their language skills from a very different starting point. 97 per cent of Bangladeshi students in Tower Hamlets mainly speak English as a second language, after Sylheti, but despite this they perform as well as or better than white pupils at GCSE. ref name=BTG>"BBC London Local - Bridging the gap". BBC. Retrieved 2006-11-09.

Bangladeshi pupils make more progress than several other minority ethnic groups between Key Stage 3 and GCSE. Bengali speaking pupils with greater English fluency are closing the gap for GCSE average scores with other language groups. For example, 71% of Bangladeshi pupils who achieve level 5 at Key Stage 3 achieve five or more A*–C grades at GCSE, compared with 67% of Pakistani pupils and 48% of Black Caribbean pupils. Overall, the correlation between FSM eligibility and attainment at GCSE is less strong for Bangladeshi girls and boys than for other groups. Overall, girls are more likely to do better in education than boys, with 55% of girls achieving 5 or more A*-C at GCSE compared with boys at 41%, and the achievement rate overall is at 48% for Bangladeshi pupils compared with 53% for all pupils.