Somali educational achievement - Lambeth, UK

A oft-repeated myth is that somalis do not perform as good in education as other ethnicities. I am not denying that the current educational situation in the somaly community is not perfect, but it is not as close to as bad as some portray it. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth. To substantiate this claim, I will below present somali educational achivement in the UK, more specifically Lambeth schools in London, for the past years regarding GCSE.

Let’s start from 2009: Somalis have had a steady increase in pass rate, from 48% in 2009 to 61% in 2011 and thus being above the national pass rate at 59%.


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If we look at the GCSE score trend for somali pupils in Lambeth for the period 2014-2018, we find that they are above the national average in all instances, scoring 60%, 55%, 71%, 55%, 64% respectively. You may also note that the somalis outperform the white British 3 years out of 5.


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It gets even more interesting when looking at the English and Maths 9 to 4/A*-C attainment by ethnic background, having a 81% and 78% pass rate for 2016 and 2018 respectively (with the national average being 59% in both instances):

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Add the above to the fact that more than a third (36%) of the pupils were eligible for free meals, a proxy for social deprivation.

Another interesting thing is the scores for KS1 and KS2, where a large part of the Somalis are not fluent in English and still do well (you can look up the numbers in the link).

Too bad it is rather impossible to find statistics such as these here in Sweden, all they ever give is statistics of “pupils with parents born in other countries”, which is a shame really. I do not know how it looks in North America, but I’d think there is a possibility to find such information, no?

Sources:
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/rsu/site...ali_pupils_raising_achivement_report_2018.pdf
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/rsu/sites/www.lambeth.gov.uk.rsu/files/The_Achievement_of_Somali_Pupils_in_Lambeth_Research Brief_2016.pdf
 

Basic

Passive Aggressive is the new Aggressive
VIP
I agree, the Somali educational excellence has only increased throughout the years. I finished my GCSES in the mid 2010s with 9 A*/As and the rest Bs. This was the story with many Somalis around me.
 

BetterDaysAhead

#JusticeForShukriAbdi #FreeYSL
VIP
Reer UK if you’re gonna beef with caribbeans on Twitter (which I’m not supporting btw) bring up how you’re outperforming them academically instead of slavery attacks :it0tdo8:
 

Leila

Wanaag iyo Dhiig kar
A lot of Somali parents bring their children to tuition centres, many of these centres are owned by Somalis. This is really good , I wonder how Somali students do in other boroughs like Brent and Ealing.
 
the Caribbean population is also dying out that now biracial children surpass full caribbean children who are under the age of 5 they are heading to extinction

Ma'sha'Allah

:salute::salute:

Bare in mine Somalis still suffer from house overcrowding and parents being unable to speak English.

Soon that figure shall be 100% In'Sha'Allah.
 
waaaait a minute. A positive thread about UK somalis? this disprove the constant lies people throw at UK somalis. We are rising fast everywhere
 
Beautiful thread. There's many large Somali societies in UK universities ( comparable to the African and Pakistani societies)
 
The reason why it was lower before is because many Somalis came from Holland and Scandinavian countries 2000 + , they basically had to learn a new language AND suffer through all sorts of social and educational problems.

It's not fair to judge a pre-teen/teen who just learned a new language on their exam results.

Somalis are highly intelligent and capable and the stats will continue to rise.
 
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