Increase mainstream teaching of Bengali say Libdems

11.25.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 28th Oct 2007

Cllr Azizur Rahman Khan presents an award at a mother tongue school

Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats today called for more support to be given to the mainstream teaching of Bengali in local schools. Speaking at a conference arranged by the Tower Hamlets Parents Centre, Cllr Stephanie Eaton spoke of the importance of mother tongue language classes and the need to extend after school provision of Bengali to the mainstream curriculum.

The well attended conference considered the recommendations of the Dearing Report into the teaching of community languages. Councillor Eaton paid tribute to the efforts of after school Mother Tongue classes around the Borough but also said "Mainstreaming Bengali language teaching opens up the opportunity for many more children to learn the language and to enjoy the beauty of its poetry and literature. I look forward to the day when Bengali is studied not only as a mother tongue language but is chosen as a new modern language by English, Polish and Somali students in the Borough."

Some of the parents present criticised the council for "marginalising" the teaching of Bengali. In explaining the low level of provision of Bengali language teaching, the Labour Leader of the Council, Denise Jones spoke of the lack of excellent teachers of Bengali and cited criticisms of Bengali teaching at a local school. In response Councillor Eaton said "I am surprised that there is this apparent shortage of good teachers of Bengali in Tower Hamlets. If this is the case, then I call upon the Council to provide adequate support to potential teachers and teaching assistants to ensure we have enough qualified teachers."