Multi-ethnic education (2)
June 11th, 1985
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 11th June 1985.
Mr P A Newsam’s letter (May 23rd) about the expression of views opposed to so-called multi-ethnic education is quite disengenuous. Mr Newsam, as an experienced bureaucrat, is perfectly aware of the fact that the expression of views by employees of a Local Education Authority contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy, is a guarantee of reduced or zero promotion prospects at the very least.
Mr Newsam’s assertion that “of course” Mr Honeyford has a right to express his views is nonsense when Mr Honeyford is facing total professional ruin for so doing. It is also worth reminding Mr Newsam what views Mr Honeyford is being pilloried for.
These are in summary that ethnic minority parents, having elected to come to Britain, have thereby taken on a commitment to British society and culture on behalf of themselves and their children, who should accordingly be brought up to speak the English language.
Also Asian parents should not be allowed to remove their children from school for months at a time, any more than English parents are allowed to. These are the views of the vast majority of the English people whose land this has been for 1,500 years.
Mr Newsam’s quoting of the 1944 Education Act in the Honeyford case is likewise disengenuous. Everybody in Bradford knows that the efficiency of the instruction in Mr Honeyford’s school was unquestioned prior to the publication of his views. Even now Mr Honeyford’s school is oversubscribed.