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To respond to the education needs of its newly arriving minority pupils Birmingham set up a department for the teaching of EAL (Rose et al., 1969; BABP, undated), including two Reception Centres for intensive English teaching. Upon arrival in the city as a twelve year old, I attended one of these centres. The authority was also the first to issue guidance on the teaching of world religions (Cox, 1976; Joly 1995). By the early 1980s, Birmingham had established a Multicultural Support Service. This was where I began my teaching career, in 1983.

Later, the LA published a strategy for underachieving groups, which included Pakistanis. It established two achievement groups – one for Asian and the other for African

Caribbean pupils14_{, with associated achievement plans (BCC, 2003; 2003a). The strategy}

had the expressed aim to 'close the gap'. It set out “a planned reduction of 5% per annum of ‘the equality gap’ that exists between these groups and the overall averages.

This was to be achieved by differential (my emphasis) target setting for individual schools” (BCC, 2002, p2).

The plans described underachievement as a ‘systemic phenomenon’15_{. “Asian Heritage}

young people underachieve because they are educated in an education system…which exhibits aspects of racism” (p2). The plans committed the LA to work with schools “as an external change agent”, to provide services to underachieving groups and by

providing strategic leadership and management in the city.

Similar to the national situation, Birmingham also prioritised the needs of African Caribbean pupils, as shown by its production of numerous reports (BCC, 2000; BCC, 2003b; Walker & Brown, 2000; Tomlin & Hatcher, 2002; Bean & Cham, 2003; Wisdom 2006). This was as a result of the activism of the local Black Caribbean parents (Warren & Gillborn, 2003). "No comparable influence by other communities was brought to our attention…" (p53). Grosvenor (1997, p150) had similarly found the Caribbean

community as ‘confrontational’, ‘disrespectful’ (of authority) who ‘complained

vociferously’ and wanted equality with White people. They were able to articulate their case to the local authority in a way which was difficult to ignore (Newton, 1976). An illustration of this was provided by Brighouse (2008); he talked about a meeting he attended, as the Chief Education Officer, with the African Caribbean community. He referred to it as a ‘baptism of fire’:

“The hall was full of 300 or so people from the African-Caribbean community. All were angry. All felt let down by the education system. Most were in despair. It was difficult not to be defensive and almost impossible to persuade them that I would or could contribute anything”.

15 _{Described in these words: “the education system is not always as effective as it might be in meeting the} needs of some learners. In particular, the curriculum does not always take account of the heritage, cultures and concerns of minority ethnic groups” (BCC, 2004a, p1).

For Newton (1976), the political system does not respond equally to different groups; some they are forced to respond while others they can ignore without any cost. “The formal arrangements of liberal democracy…….do not ensure that each and every voice, or each and every interest is attended to with equal care, or that all voices are heard in the first place” (p236). As a consequence, “the system responds differentially to different interests according to the strength with which they can press their case” (p235). Later, he points out that when “interests are not articulated at all clearly or powerfully, decision-makers may be completely oblivious of them and quite unable to take them into account” (p237).

Unlike the African Caribbean community, Pakistanis did not participate in ‘the politics of protest’ (Dench, 1986, p172-3) which meant their case has not been properly articulated or in Newton’s words was “neglected, overlooked, ignored or denied” (p236). Pakistanis continued to be poorly represented at policy level. For example, when Birmingham Race Action Partnership (BRAP), the body whose role it was to promote equality for all groups in the city, was invited to give evidence on educational

underachievement in Birmingham to the Select Committee on Education and Skills, (House of Commons, 2002), its chief officer, Joy Warmington, reported that

Bangladeshi pupils were the main underachieving group, making no mention of

Pakistanis. Consequently, in Birmingham, there was a belief expressed that the problem of Pakistani underachievement would sort itself. “Pakistani pupils will soon show rapid improvement as generational factors work through” (BSLC, 2001, p17).

There was occasional focus on Pakistani pupils (Rashid et al., 2005; BCC, 2009; BCC, 2010), including in partnership between the LA and the local Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu, Society for the Advancement of Urdu, in order to facilitate Urdu teaching.

By the time I left my post as Adviser, in 2011, much of the LA’s equality-related work in education had ceased and the Black and Pakistani staff, who would normally lead on such initiatives, were made redundant in response to funding cuts, leaving a handful of mainly White staff in post. While, the Council’s Scrutiny Committee continued to receive reports (BCC, 2013) on who was underachieving in the local schools, beyond this, the authority appeared to lack the resources to take any action as schools now controlled much of the funding.