Glasgow Education Committee Refuses to Address Education Failure Further Damaging Children
We need to weed activism out of our school system
On Friday Glasgow City Council will have his bi-monthly education meeting.
One would expect them to be raising all the flags to address recent reports of failing standards in schools. Scottish children are being failed by the educational system, lacking literacy and numeracy skills on a scale not seen in decades. But no, not a hint of anything to do with actual…. education. Glasgow City Council forges ahead with it’s activist model using weasel words like ‘pupil voice’ pushing further the intensely problematic United Nations Rights of the Child.
One thing the recent debacle into the absolutely empty claims of the Conversion Therapy Ban consultation and GRA reform has shown us is that Scottish Government is very good at presenting a policy surface of sunshine and roses which obfuscates deeply problematic, useless policies (at best), which actually harm children.
To prove my point I will bring your attention to recent claims by MSP Kaukab Stewart of racism directed particularly at Muslim girls which directly was keeping them from being involved in sport.
On the 29 November 2023 MSP Kaukab Stewart, Convener for Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee addressed Scottish Parliament and insinuated that Muslim girls were kept out of sports due to racism and inequality.
In the tweet thread I pointed out how hypocritical her statement is.
I live in Pollokshields, where Ms. Stewart grew up and still has family. As a local activist I have made a bit of name for myself advocating for and providing fun opportunities for local kids. In the past three years due to my grassroots activism I managed to bring in excess of £20k in cash and over £40k in kind via projects for local children.
Pollokshields has the largest representation of Muslim kids in Scotland. If indeed ‘intersectional’ issues were to be the issue then those barriers would be evident here. What we have, however, is not a situation where Muslim kids, and girls specifically, are kept out of sport, but a situation where there are NO opportunities for sport (or indeed any youth activities) ANYWHERE. It is something I have been campaigning for the past 18 years.
To that end I made a program for BBC Radio on it in 2022
Pollokshields used to have four community centres, now we have none.
Here is a picture of one of the fated now gone community centres on Forth Street. A hole. The land was sold by Glasgow City Council to the adjoining mosque. I understand there are development plans but it has been like that as long as I have lived here (20+ years). Where did that money go? Anyone’s guess. Not here. Not for kids.
We used to have youth clubs, now the only ones that pop up occasionally are *exclusively* for ‘BAME’ kids. Just this past spring the Youth Community Support Agency (YCSA) got funding for a six week block where kids could go to the local school and play video games and football, and my son - being white- was excluded as it was specifically for BAME kids. So whilst his friends trundled along to the club there was nothing left for him to do. Both he and his friends looked bereft and confused as they separated on that day. It broke my heart. Neither could undersand. This is how it is here.
In addition there are cultural factors which keep local kids from participating let alone excelling or developing a habit or hobby of being involved in sport. A fact which Ms. Stewart is well aware of having grown up in Pollokshields. Most Muslim children go to mosque for lessons at least five days a week until they are 11 making participation in activities out with the family or faith realm very difficult.
To excel in sport, to even participate on a level of a finely tuned hobby one needs a lot of resource, time, materials and access. This does not come easily. I am reminded of listening to Riley Gaines speak of her commitment and sacrifice which enabled her to become a champion swimmer. From the age of seven she would swim for two hours before school and every day after school, she missed weddings and funerals, didn’t attend school events like her prom, so dedicated was she to being a champion. Nurturing sports talent and opportunities ONLY comes when ACTUAL resources are at hand. Of which we have none. Hence why ‘people of means’ parachute their kids around to other areas to afford them opportunities.
In addition MSP Kaukab Stewart alludes to the sex based barriers to participation but again this is cultural, this is not to be solved by her governmental proclamation. It is an ‘inside’ problem. There is not a huge drive from within the Muslim population for girls to be involved in sport. It’s just not a priority. Programs like what she refers to initiating, will elevate the privileged less religious few and further a false narrative of oppression amongst all. It is not white/systemic gatekeeping that is prohibiting these children from participation but the lack of opportunities locally matched with cultural barriers.
I could further point out that one of the main primary schools in the area -Pollokshields Primary - has a playground the size of a postage stamp, and a gym hall half the size of a scout hall, making addressing the lack of sports in the day wholly impossible. Children not only do not have access to sport in the community they do not have space to be physical in the school day.
As said earlier - scrape the surface of any elite athlete and you will find a huge amount of investment from family, both in time and money. One of my son’s Muslim friends aspires to be a footballer, but as there is only a small raggedy mugga locally, which is dominated by older boys, it is unlikely they will even have the opportunity to develop a proficient hobby within the sport, let alone a professional qualification.
That said the government could offer better provision for the local children (ALL the children) that is accessible and fits within family/faith boundaries. Over school holidays most children are aimless in this area seeking activities. What has Scot gov offered? This past summer two 1.5 hour programs per week as part of the holiday food program run through Southside Housing. Whilst these programs were very nice, they in no way addressed the need for local and affordable activities for kids. They were (much needed) social spaces for families. (but not for kids to develop per se)
We have had three expensive consultations in the past 10 years asking the locals what they want. Always in the top three is youth activities. Has that happened? No.
Nicola Sturgeon is well aware of my efforts having been in a viral video with me during one of my projects Four Corners (which ironically had the highest participation rate in any arts project amongst kids locally ever) . She was also familiar with me when I was a local community councillor. I often spoke of how we needed to be more clever in delivering resources to kids.
Indeed Nicola and Kaukab’s other SNP colleague Anne Mclaughlin awarded me a commendation my contribution to dance and peacemaking off the back of work I did in Sri Lanka in the war and subsequent dance projects here in Glasgow in 2011. They cannot claim ignorance on this issue.
What is apparent that their decision to ignore the facts is not down to lack of knowing but to political manifestations. Specifically their drive to promote the new anti-racism and manifest a new caste system.
Where this gets in my craw is when it serves to harm the very children I have been trying to elevate these past 18 years. Creating more division and not actually giving them an opportunity to thrive.
This is a perfect example of a policy that is going to harm the very children it purports to elevate.
Can we get back to the practical aspects of facilitating children to thrive? Can we get back to education, to providing good quality local resources for ALL children to access be it in sport, expressive arts, or youth clubs and away from the empty proclamations?
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