Asian parents fear ‘choice’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 15

Asian parents fear ‘choice’

(N.Z. Press association— Copyright)

LONDON, October 29.

Members of Britain’s Asian community object to co-educational schools, because, among other things, they fear that their children may meet and marry partners not chosen for them.

A report published yesterday said that some Asian parents had asked for their children to be transferred from co-educational schools because of this fear. The father an an 11-year-old Indian boy took his son to an all-boys school “because it was his duty to choose a wife for him.” The case is highlighted in the report by the National Foundation for Educational Research, which has been studying the problems of multi-racial schools. A research team found that i teachers were having a difficult time adapting school life to suit immigrant children. i Physical education teachers found that Moslem girls, jin particular, were reluctant to uncover their legs, while I most Asian girls refused to strip for showers after playing sport. Language problem But the biggest problem in multi-racial schools was language. The report cited a class whose pupils spoke a total of 37 different languages. Of the estimated 300,000 immigrant children in British schools, only about half used English as mother tongue. In most cases this retarded i development to a degree that

most Asian and West Indian children were working at a level one or two years behind that of English children of the same age.