Why immigrants are to thank for rising standards in schools

Something very strange is happening in London: its state schools are going through a huge renaissance – while attainment in many northern English schools is going into reverse. The chief of Ofsted, Sir Micahel Wilshaw, laid the problem bare in a speech to the IPPR today:-

Three in ten secondary schools in Manchester and four in ten in Liverpool require improvement or are inadequate compared to one in ten in inner London. The situation in some of their satellite towns is even worse. A third of the schools in Rochdale are not good enough, as is a similar proportion in Salford. In Oldham, six in ten secondaries require improvement or are inadequate and in Knowsley not a single secondary school is good or better…

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Sam Leith

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His list goes on. Much will be written about what’s going wrong in the north, but I’d like to suggest something that their schools could perhaps do with more of: immigrants.