Educational attainment of
Muslim pupils in England and
Scotland
Outline of presentation
•
•
•
•
•
Educational attainment of Muslim pupils
Progression of pupils through school
Exclusions
Scottish and English data
Summary and comparison
Methodology
• Secondary analysis of large scale survey data
(Scottish pupils’ survey, year; LSYPE, 2001
Census, Government statistics)
• Difficulties to disentangle religion from ethnicity 99.16% of Pakistani girls and 97.46% of
Pakistani boys, 97.27% of Bangladeshi girls and
98.66% of Bangladeshi boys self-identifying as
Muslim (LSYPE).
• In the Scottish analysis, ethnicity is used as
proxy for religion.
KS4/GCSE results, by ethnicity,
England (boys)
Chinese (0.2)
Indian (1.2)
White and Asian (0.3)
Irish (0.2)
Any other Asian background (0.5)
Any other mixed background (0.5)
White and Black African (0.1)
Boys
Any other White background (1.3)
White British (41)
Any other ethnic group (0.5)
Bangladeshi(0.5)
Black African (1.0)
Pakistani (1.3)
Any other Black background (0.2)
White and Black Caribbean (0.5)
Black Caribbean (0.7)
Gypsy/Romany (<0.1)
Traveller of Irish Heritage (<0.1)
Ethnicity unknown for 2 per cent of
the boys in the sample
0
10
20
30
Source: Government Equality Office (2010)
40
50
60
70
Rank in the distribution
80
90
100
KS4/GCSE results, by ethnicity,
England (girls)
Chinese (0.2)
Indian (1.1)
White and Asian (0.3)
Any other Asian background (0.4)
Irish (0.2)
Any other ethnic group (0.4)
Any other mixed background (0.5)
Girls
Bangladeshi (0.5)
White and Black African (0.1)
Any other White background (1.2)
White British (40)
Black African (1)
Pakistani (1.2)
Any other Black background (0.2)
White and Black Caribbean (0.5)
Black Caribbean (0.7)
Traveller of Irish Heritage (<0.1)
Gypsy/Romany (<0.1)
Ethnicity unknown for 2 per cent of
the girls in the sample
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Rank in the distribution
Source: Government Equality Office (2010)
80
90
100
Differences from average assessments,
boys aged 7-16, not FSM (LSYPE)
Differences from average assessments,
girls aged 7-16, not FSM (LSYPE)
Exclusion by ethnic group and gender
(%, England, 2005-06) (DCSF, 2009)
Any other ethnic group
Chinese
Any other Black background
Black African
Black Caribbean
Any other Asian background
Bangladeshi
Pakistani
Indian
Any other Mixed background
White and Asian
White British
0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
Boys
Girls
20.00
25.00
30.00
Secondary 4 results, by ethnicity,
Scotland, 2008 (boys)
Asian-Chinese (0.2)
Asian-Indian (0.1)
Mixed (0.3)
Boys
Black (Caribbean,
African, Other) (0.2)
White-Other (0.6)
White-UK (48)
Asian-Pakistani (0.6)
Asian-Other (0.1)
Other (1)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Rank in the distribution
70
80
90
100
Secondary 4 results, by ethnicity,
Scotland, 2008 (girls)
Asian-Chinese (0.1)
Asian-Indian (0.1)
Mixed (0.3)
Girls
Asian-Other (0.1)
Asian-Pakistani (0.6)
White-UK (46)
White-Other (0.6)
Black (Caribbean,
African, Other) (0.1)
Other (0.2)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Rank in the distribution
70
80
90
100
Three year tariff score of S4 pupils by ethnicity
and deprivation (SIMD 2006)
(Scottish Government, 2009d)
ot
kn
ow
n/
n
B
B
ot la
W
an
hi
di ck Ca Tr
Pa
C gl
t
s – r a
hi ad In o M ki Af e
O clo o ibb ve
r
s
–
n
es es dia th ixe ta ica U th se th ea lle
e hi n er d ni n K er d er n rs
N
Cases of fixed period exclusion by
ethnic background of pupils 2007/2008
(Scottish Government, 2009c)
Exclusions rate pupils
(%)
0
5
10
15
20
Highest qualification, by ethnicity, men, UK,
2006-2008 (%) Working age population
(Source: LFS, 2006-08)
Highest qualification, by ethnicity, women,
UK, 2006-08 (%)
Working age population
Summary
• Attainment: Overall Chinese and Indian pupils
were the best performing groups and Black
African, Caribbean and travellers the worst
performing groups.
• Progress - Muslim pupils start off well below
national average – but catch up in England
• However, at the age of 16 Pakistani boys in
England still score well below national average –
in Scotland the gap is generally smaller.
Summary II
• Gender difference is marked and cut across
ethnicity. Notably, Pakistani girls make greater
progress than Pakistani boys and overtake white
girls.
• Social deprivation matters – but the difference in
educational attainment on the grounds of social
deprivation is not as great for minority ethnic
groups as for white pupils.