Here’s why Glasgow schoolchildren, our children, are failing ….

There are 10,800 (1 year ago the number was 8,853) schoolchildren in Glasgow who have English as a second language, a seventh of the total school population. There are 102 different languages spoken at home by the offspring of immigrants. The most common after English, are Punjabi, Urdu and Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Polish, Cantonese, Swahili, Kurdish and Thai, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Into this mix have come unprecedented numbers of asylum seeker and refugee families, many of whose children arrive at school unable to speak, read, or write English. At the start of the school term last summer, 25 children – none of whom spoke English – turned up at a Govanhill, Glasgow primary. There can be 37 children in one week arriving in schools across the city. We not only have pupils who don’t have English but don’t have any education, in particular girls from Afghanistan who have not been allowed access to education.

And the extra schooling-costs of indulging the 10,800 non-indigenous? At present the city council employs 140 staff to help the foreigners but an extra £1million is needed to employ 26 additional teachers. Here’s how they’ll siphon our wage packets to pay for foreigners and how our own kids will lose out …. here’s the proposals put forward to raise £500,000 (and that’s only half of the needed finance) ….

1 .. Increasing the cost of what parents pay for nursery education (all levels of education are free to asylum seekers).
2 .. Closing three primaries and axing 12 staff (12 of our own teachers out to let 12 of theirs in).
3 .. Cutting grants to play schemes and nurseries run by charities and private organisations (our taxes for our own children swiped to provide for the immigrants).
4 .. Making primary children travel two miles instead of one before being entitled to free travel (all travel is free to asylum seekers).

And how do our city council view this worsening catastrophe …. Gordon Matheson, city council executive spokesman for education, said, ‘‘The growing number of “new Glaswegians” in schools benefits pupils from all backgrounds and the increase in diversity in our school age population adds immeasurably to Glasgow’s culture and to the education and experience of all our young people – pupils learn there is a big, diverse, interesting world out there and that the net impact of migration on our city is culturally, socially and economically beneficial.’’
Education director for Glasgow, Maureen McKenna, said,‘‘ Our schools are rich and diverse, which is fantastic, but for some class teachers it is difficult. We do not have sufficient specialist teachers to meet demands so we are looking at having to train classroom teachers.’’ In other words, to hell with the Scots’ children – let’s keep the foreigners happy.

How can our own schoolchildren be successfully tutored when there are some fifty to seventy different languages being spoken in Glasgow schools. Translators have to be installed in the classes for the immigrants’ children who can’t speak, read or write English. This seriously slows down the progress of our own children – this is why our own children are continuing to under achieve – they are not being taught. This situation is serious – it will deteriorate as more foreign children are placed into mainstream education – and many more are on the way here!

Clearly our LibLabConSnp Glasgow city councillors are more concerned with the education of the immigrants’ children than the education and future of Glasgow’s own children. Have you ever heard any of these councillors speak out against the number of immigrants and their offspring who are descending on us? No way – it would look bad on their CV – they are too scared of being labelled racist by one of the many asylum seekers / refugee support groups which we fund.

Our schools and our education system are in meltdown. Our own kids will be put out into a work environment where they will not have the ability to get the job they deserve. It’s economic suicide – an obscene betrayal on the part of our present Glasgow councillors. Only way to bring an end to this contempt is to replace the present councillors with councillors who care about our own kids. The Scottish kids, our children, need the British National Party, Glasgow needs BNP councillors.

When a community has lost the will or the backbone to stand up for their own children, that communiy is finished.

Bob McK