Education
See also: List of schools in the London Borough of Tower HamletsThe London Borough of Tower Hamlets is the local education authority for state schools within the borough. As of January 2008 there are 19,890 primary-school pupils and 15,262 secondary-school pupils attending state schools in Tower Hamlets. Independent-school pupils account for 2.4 percent of schoolchildren in the borough. In 2010 51.8 percent of pupils achieved 5 A*–C GCSEs including Mathematics and English—the highest results in the borough's history—compared to the national average of 53.4 percent. Seventy-four percent achieved 5 A*–C GCSEs for all subjects (the same as the English average); the figure in 1997 was 26 percent. The percentage of pupils on free school meals in the borough is the highest in England and Wales. In 2007 the council rejected proposals to build a Goldman Sachs-sponsored academy.
Schools in the borough have high levels of racial segregation. The Times reported in 2006 that 47 percent of secondary schools were exclusively non-white, and that 33 percent had a white majority. About 60 percent of pupils entering primary and secondary school are Bangladeshi. The percentage of primary-school pupils who speak English as a second language is 78.
The council runs several Idea Stores in the borough, which combine traditional library services with other resources, and are designed to attract more diverse members. The flagship Whitechapel store was designed by David Adjaye and cost £16 million to build.
Read more about this topic: London Borough Of Tower Hamlets
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“One of the greatest faults of the women of the present time is a silly fear of things, and one object of the education of girls should be to give them knowledge of what things are really dangerous.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (18421911)
“You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.”
—Feodor Dostoyevsky (18211881)
“If we help an educated mans daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war?not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?”
—Virginia Woolf (18821941)