Idea of Deprived

Author : Mary Anne Winslow
In this paper I'm going to talk about the idea of the deprived concentrating on absence and exclusion issues in inner city schools. Disadvantage focuses on those who are situated at the lower end of the dimension, whether this is educational, economic or social. Educational
disadvantage is defined (by the Education Reform Act of 1988) as the
'impediments to education arising from social and economic disadvantage, which prevent students from deriving appropriate benefit from education in schools'. Truancy and Exclusion are outcomes of educational disadvantage, and this paper will examine the causes and
reasons looking at how the results of truancy have had an effect on
generations past and present.Truancy is defined as 'any absence of part or all of one or more days
from school during which the school attendance officer has not been
notified by the parent or guardian of the legal cause of such absence
of the student' (Attendance/Truancy Policy').Educational disadvantage can arise for many reasons. Children with
intellectual or physical disabilities are hindered, but so are
children from certain social and economic backgrounds. Children from
these backgrounds are more likely to live in a worse environment, for
example siblings of one-parent families and households with low
incomes. Of course, disadvantage exists in rural areas, but it is
often in the inner cities that the worst problems are found.
High-density population tends to mean living in greater proximity to
crime and drugs and it frequently means living in poor quality
housing. Children are also more likely to be emotionally upset by the
tension in their lives and they are less likely to have the
opportunity for study and educational support at home.Problems in families play an important role in education. Poverty and
fear of employment prospects can undermine motivation. Children can
become de-motivated when school seems boring, too difficult, or unlikely to lead
anywhere and in some cases this leads to them dropping out of
education entirely. Both truancy and exclusion are associated with a
significantly higher likelihood of becoming a teenage parent, being
unemployed or homeless later in life, or even ending up in prison.
Many of today's truants are in danger of becoming tomorrow's
criminals. Parents bear the primary responsibility for ensuring that
their children attend school and home circumstances exert an important
influence over pupil attendance. A Youth Cohort study report showed
that truants tend to be older pupils and from poorer backgrounds.
Their parents are more likely to be in lower skilled than in
professional or managerial jobs, and are more likely to be in local
authority housing ('Truancy and Youth Transitions'). Truants are more
likely to leave school with few or no qualifications and like others
with low qualifications, those who miss school are more likely to be
out of work at age 18 and therefore more likely to become homeless or
live in poor housing.The influence of what happens in school is also a major factor. For
example bullying, pressure of exams and more commonly just plain
boredom. School truancy is one of the most common outcomes of
bullying. Bullied children prefer to risk getting caught out of school
than to get caught by the bullies. One research study reports that one
third of girls and one quarter of boys described being afraid of going
to school at some time because of bullying. Bullying is very often due to racism, which in general terms consists of conduct or words or practices which disadvantage or
advantage people because of their color, culture or ethnic origin.As we have seen, there are many reasons and causes for truancy and
unfortunately, several cases of persistent truancy result in exclusion
from school. A department for education report showed that permanent
exclusion represents 0.4% of primary school pupils, 0.34% for
secondary and 0.54% for special needs schools.OFSTED research highlights poor acquisition of basic skills,
particularly literacy, limited aspirations and opportunities, poverty
and poor relationships with pupils,parents and teachers. Excluded pupils generally experience
considerable disadvantage with high levels of family stress, including
unemployment, low income and family disruption.Most excluded pupils are white, male, young teenagers but a number of
groups are disproportionately likely to be excluded. Children with
special needs are 6 times more likely than others to be excluded. Children in care are 10
times more likely to be excluded according to a National Foster Care
report. Perhaps as may as 30% of children in care are out of mainstream education.In 1993, the department for education published figures which revealed
that African Caribbean children made up 85% of all children
permanently excluded from schools in England and Wales even though
they only made up 2% of the total school population. They are 6 times more likely than others to
be excluded from schools. An OFSTED study found that African-Caribbean
children who had been excluded had a higher proportion living with a
single parent. Even though they tended to be of higher ability, they
were said by schools to be under achieving. A 1996 OFSTED review concluded that there were
high levels of tension between white teachers and African Caribbean
pupils.The number of all students permanently excluded from schools rose
dramatically in the 1990's. The annual increase has slowed down in
recent years but the overall numbers have continued to rise with more
than 12,000 young people excluded in 1998. If a child does not attend school, then their chances of reaching a minimum level of educational attainment are greatly diminished. As we
have seen, schools often find themselves having to deal with problems
that should have been dealt with by families, or by other public
agencies and the cost of exclusion spills over into the wider community. There are often good reasons for schools to exclude children but too many children are being excluded for relatively minor reasons, or because they needed help which they didn't get. Ignorance
is a barrier to action, everyone involved in education has a
responsibility if there is to be any possibility of understanding, of
embracing rather than excluding.The government already provides support to individual schools through
Standard Funded projects, and other means, and since 1998 exclusion
issues have been central to the programme of Education Action Zones,
giving priority to plans for achieving serious reductions. The
Education Action Zones emphasis on educational under- performance will
help to break the vicious circle of learning and attendance problems,
while the community focus of zones will help to draw in other partners
to bolster the efforts of the schools.By the end of this year, the target of the Social Exclusion Unit is to
reduce truancy by one third. The Department for Education will be
encouraging Local Authorities to inform magistrates of local truancy
problems so they have them in mind when considering cases and the
police will be given an explicit power to pick up truants from the
streets.Knowledge about exclusion will be improved and the Department for
Education will consult with local authorities over the procedures for
setting targets. The Secretary of State for Education will ask OFSTED
to conduct special inspections of ten schools each year which have
disproportionately high levels of exclusion or truancy and exclusion
issues will be made central to the programme of Education Action
Zones.National targets to reduce the level of exclusions are all very well,
but this will not work unless schools are given the resources and
support they need to tackle the growing number of pupils who ruin the
education of their fellow students.Mary Anne has been writing for custom essay writing service for 5 years.You can ask her about college esays or dissertation writing service.
Keyword : deprived, education, idea