Leicester Corporation/ City of Leicester Education Committee: Immigrant Pupils in Schools

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): L370

Title: Leicester Corporation/ City of Leicester Education Committee: Immigrant Pupils in Schools

Date(s): 1966 - 1973

Level of description:

Extent and medium of the unit of description:

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s):

Administrative/Biographical history: Nash and Reeder (1993) provide background information on the history of Leicester's immigrant communities, emphasising the city's long history of immigration dating from Irish and Jewish settlement in the 19th century followed by periods of Belgian, Polish, Ukrainian, Italian and New Commonwealth settlement throughout the 20th century. Brown's `Living History Guide to Local Research (5)'provides more detailed information about the settlement of Black and Asian peoples in Leicestershire, which mainly occurred from the mid 1940s onwards in response to recruitment drives to overcome labour shortages in key industries and sectors. In terms of Caribbean immigration, people came from the islands of Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda.
In terms of immigration from the Indian sub-continent, people came mainly from the Punjab and Gujarat. In the late 1960s migrants and asylum seekers from Kenya and Tanzania came to Leicester and in 1972 c.6000 out of the 30,000 Asians expelled from Uganda came to the city between August and November 1972. These periods of settlement are reflected in the committee reports of the City of Leicester Corporation including statistical reports on the number of immigrant pupils enrolled in Leicester schools, compiled by the Education Committee.
References:

• Nash, David and Reeder, David (eds) (1993) Leicester in the twentieth century, Dover: Alan Sutton (ISBN: 0750904879)
• Brown, Cynthia (1997) Living History Unit Guide to Local Research (5): Immigrant Communities in Leicester, © Leicester City Council

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: This collection comprises annual summaries of the numbers of `immigrant pupils' on roll in schools within the City of Leicester local education authority, compiled as part of the Return made to the Department of Education and Science (Form 7i: Schools). The collection is arranged into sets of annual statistical tables dated 1966, then 1968-1973 (inclusive).
Within the reports the term `immigrant pupils' are defined as either (a) `Children born outside the British Isles who have come to this country with, or to join, parents whose country of origin was also abroad', or (b) Children born in the United Kingdom to parents whose country of origin was abroad and who came to the United Kingdom on or after 1st January up to ten years before the date of the report. Children from Northern Ireland, Eire and children of mixed immigrant and non-immigrant parentage are not defined as `immigrant pupils'.

Each report then contains c.5 pages of statistical tables arranged under the following column headings:

• 1- Name of school (listed in alphabetical order)
• 2- Total number of pupils on roll
• 3- Total number of immigrant pupils on roll
• 4-12- Classification of Immigrant Pupils by Nationality: (Categories = African, Indian, Pakistani, Italian, Polish, West Indian, Other European, Other Non-European, Not Known)
• 13-Total number of classes in the school (i.e. form entry)
• 14-18- Number of classes with under-mentioned number of immigrant pupils in them
• 19-22- Classification of Immigrant Pupils by their knowledge of English (Classified as `No Problem'; `Reasonably good spoken English but weak in written English'; `Some English but needing further intensive teaching'; and `No English', as compared to the level of attainment in written and spoken English of local `non-immigrant' children.)

Records for 1966-1973 are all divided into tables for Primary Phase (Infants and Junior Schools) a table for Secondary Modern Schools, a table for Secondary Grammar Schools and a Grand Total.
In the 1966 report the classification of pupils by nationality includes the following categories: African; Indian; Pakistani; Italian; Polish; West Indian; Other European; Other non-European and Not Known. Nationalities for Column 10, `Other European,' included Austrian, Cypriot-Greek, Hungarian, Latvian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Yugoslavian, etc. Nationalities for Column 11, `Other Non-European,' included American, Canadian, Chinese, Egyptian, Fijian, Malayan, New Zealand, Persian, Singhalese and St. Helena.

For information: in the 1966 report immigrant pupils represented 6.4% of the total school population in Leicester at 2853 out of 44,518 pupils on roll. Of this total 43 were described as African, 1394 Indian, 194 Pakistani and 758 West Indian.
By 1968 the pupil statistics were also broken down according to gender and by 1969 the classification of immigrant pupils by country of origin included a separate reference to pupils of Kenyan origin, and a section on `Other African (Commonwealth only)'. Individual column headings were also included for India, Pakistan, `Other Asia (Commonwealth only)' and `West Indian (Including Guyana)'. These sub-headings remained unchanged in 1970 and 1971.

In 1972 the categories changed again and the full list included pupils from the following countries/regions of the world: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Cyprus (Greek), Cyprus (Turkish), Gibraltar, Malta, Kenyan (Asian); Kenyan (African), Other African (Commonwealth Only); India; Pakistan; Other Asia (Commonwealth only); West Indies (Including Guyana); Italy; Poland; Spain; Other European; United States; and `Rest of the World'.
For information, statistics from the 1973 report show that immigrant pupils represented 16.2% of the total school population of Leicester, at 8629 out of 53,126 pupils on roll. Of this total 4127 were African (including 2432 pupils of `Kenyan Asian' origin), 3118 Indian, 221 Pakistani and 802 West Indian.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement:

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Open access

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: Printed catalogues

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description: The minute books for the Education Committee are available at the Record Office, but are only available for the City of Leicester up to 1959. Later files are housed at the Education Department within Leicester City Council's local education authority. However, records for the County Education Committee are available at the Record Office in the DE4365 series (specifically, `DE 4365/1-70 Education Committee, Sub-committees and College Minutes, 1909-1989' and `DE 4365/171-197 Health and Welfare Committee and sub-committee minutes, 1954-1974'), and copies of the council minutes are available from 1939 to the present day under the reference L352.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:

Interest: Black, Asian

Specific group: Black and minority ethnic groups in Leicester

Subjects

Ethnic groups

Population demography

Schools

Immigration

Education

Personal/Corporate names

City of Leicester Education Committee

Places

Leicester, United Kingdom