tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153021073295963928.post4311428437143503167..comments2023-10-17T17:08:48.444+01:00Comments on Fulham Reactionary: ESL pupil numbers still risingFulham Reactionaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15966316580829187182noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153021073295963928.post-67778963348082131322008-04-30T17:44:00.000+01:002008-04-30T17:44:00.000+01:00At first I thought that £30K per child pa for ESL ...At first I thought that £30K per child pa for ESL teaching sounded a bit high. But then you have to take account of the following:<BR/><BR/>1. Any single class of 30 or so pupils must always have the normal teaching input anyway, so that accounts for the first £6K.<BR/><BR/>2. That class is now liable to include 4 or 5 non-English speakers. They will not all have a common language. They may hail from North Africa, Horn of Africa, Eastern Europe, EU, or the Sub Continent. So you have no guarrantee of grouping them according to mother tongue. So you may need more than one ESL supporter working in any classroom.<BR/><BR/>3. The ESL teacher needs at least a working knowledge of the academic discipline. Not all ESL teachers would be able to cover all subjects.<BR/><BR/>4. To the best of my knowledge, there was no significant drive to train and recruit ESL teachers in preparation for this overload, so the qualified staff, and their agencies, are probably able to command a fairly high premium.<BR/><BR/>So having thought it through, I think that figure is probably in the right ballpark.<BR/><BR/>And the question is, where is it coming from? If any of it is being taken from the existing school budgets, that means that all the other children are effectively being short-changed to subsidize a polyglot minority.<BR/><BR/>LEAs have a duty to minimise the premium cost of educating the ESL cohort, and they should be doing this by concentrating the ESL teachers and their pupils in specialist English schools. But I suspect that would be politically incorrect. No doubt they would rather celebrate the vibrant diversity of a class full of children and teachers who don't know what the hell is going on, most of the time.<BR/><BR/>MontyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153021073295963928.post-12277548427041835692008-04-30T17:26:00.000+01:002008-04-30T17:26:00.000+01:00Those politicians and media propagandists who have...Those politicians and media propagandists who have told us how wonderful immigration and diversity are: does a single one of them send their children to a school where these problems exist? "Do as we say, not as we do."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153021073295963928.post-69204988491374290762008-04-30T12:54:00.000+01:002008-04-30T12:54:00.000+01:00I'm speechless really.I went up town yesterday. Th...I'm speechless really.<BR/><BR/>I went up town yesterday. The atmosphere was oppressive; a palpable malice and exhaustion was in the pale air. Everywhere I saw scruffy people with their faces fixed in hard stares. I wonder if this is what it what it was like behind the Iron Curtain?<BR/><BR/>Also my own mother told me she was going to vote for the BNP. I couldn't tell her she is wrong to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153021073295963928.post-16326277716130930822008-04-30T12:37:00.000+01:002008-04-30T12:37:00.000+01:00There are also 1300 Public schools, with 500 thous...There are also 1300 Public schools, with 500 thousand pupils, in the UK(this figure could refer to England only)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com