Hi folks,

I am disappointed by the reaction of 'predictable quarters' in attacking the plan, which I think shows great vision. I commend the proposals authors and wish them all success in their sincere efforts to translate the idea into a relevant and awesome educational service.

Detractors of the proposal, Tim Yeoh and co, have seized this opportunity to show the world exactly how cruel their vision for society is, at every level imaginable.

It really shows their pettiness and that they are a hopeless group of individuals with no hope and worst of all no imagination.

Exactly the kind of people that should never be involved in politics. Lets vote them out of existence.

Perhaps they relish in the prospect of generations of culturally dislocated children growing up in their locality? Do they really hate other cultures so much that they would put low income Bangladeshi immigrant communities in the same bracket as ski holiday funsters?

It was a policy of British Occupation to educationally disempower this social group in order to plunder and exploit Bengal.

Maybe this is a more cynical plan for political exploitation, maybe its real ignorance. Strangle any chance of these kids have of discovering who they are, then accuse them of living in ghettos, underachieving and channelling their abilities into criminal activities.



Taking a trip to Bangladesh costs an awful lot, many of the families in my community ration their trips to reconnect with extended families (which are very important to us) for death or for marriage. With large eastern families this is a matter not taken lightly.

My mother taught in Tower Hamlets for 20 years, children of british origin should have an educational service available to them for them to grow and understand their surroundings. This would have a real effect on achievement levels and contentment.

Britain and its policy makers have a stake in a hopeful future for bangladesh, in its British-Bangladeshi population making positive interventions into british and bangladeshi societies.


So whats the problem? Rascism? A lack of understanding of the emerging characteristics of a community?

How about Tory voters favourite...taxpayers burden? dont make me laugh.


Manchester please stand up for the awesome place that you are.

If the Sylhet region been the size of one village then I might possibly see the value- but Sylhet is a region. Good try Manchester Doh!

It's almost unbelievable that anyone could make such a proposal, indeed I'm checking my calender to make sure this didn't come out on April 1st.

Do the the idiots supporting this type of proposal realise they've gone too far ?

F A London, you need to wake up and smell the roses. Before you start doing the usual bleating about Rasism. There is good reason why the vote was so much against, and it's quite possible that the same vote would be achieved for any other crazy schemes that involve British tax payers money going out of the country. The more that the so called Ethnic Minority groups (that's debatable), have the rules bent to help their cause, the more resentment it is going cause.
There are enough problems going on in Britain at the moment that need money throwing at them.

What a silly and unpractical idea to open a school in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh covers a large area and many of the children would not be able to get to the schools anyway.If they could not get to the schools, do you think they would spend their vacation doing homework?
I can also see other nationalities, of which there are many in Manchester, asking for the same rights. Manchester would have 20 or more schools in different parts of the world. The only people who would benefit would be the councilors and supervisers who would have to have paid trips to make sure "all was well" Then what about the parents demanding that their children be sent to schools in their homeland so that they did not lose out on their heritage and culture and of course the parents would have to go with them, fares paid of course
As I said at the beginning "what a silly idea"
FAC L.A.

It sounds like a wonderful plan when you first read it, but in practice it would prove at least chaotic. Let's say that I decide to move to Australia, and want to come back each summer for 3 months to visit. Would I expect the Australian government to pay for a school to be set up and run so that my children can attend whilst we visit family? A few of my friends then decide to set up home in New Zealand, America, Brazil, India, Singapore...would we expect schools to be set up for each of them? Wherever somebody sets up their home is their choice, but you can't expect that country's resources to be outsourced wherever you like to visit.

I'm somewhat bemused by F A of London's comments. In one breath he says that there is nothing comparable in children being taken to Bangladesh and on a 'fanciful skiing trip'. You seemed to have missed the point totally - the children going to Bangladesh are being taken out of the country for months at a time; a skiing holiday usually lasts between seven and 14 days.

The writer also says in one breath that the cost of taking your whole family to Bangladesh is exhorbitant and in the next breath how poor the Bangladeshi community is - so how do they afford it, or is it something else that the British taxpayer is forking out for?

As a white englishman would i be aloud to take my children out of school to visit Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey or Windsor Castle as they are part of my childrens heritage and culture, I dont think so, so why should anyone else.

I am really, really glad that this lunatic idea seems to have been shelved. To FA: What's wrong with waiting until you have left school at sixteen, seventeen or eighteen to travel the world? This policy would have discriminated against non-bangledeshi children, and was just plain wrong. Maybe that eight per cent of correspondents who think that funding a school in Bangledesh is a good idea would like to fund it from their own pockets, so that Manchester City's education budget can be spent within Manchester, on children regardless of their ethnic background?

If they cant live within the
law, dont let them back in
next time they leave.

Can we have a school in Florida for my Kids.... then next year maybe one in Spain or Corfu.

Has the world gone Mad!!!

If the families can afford the air fares to go out to Bangladesh so many times a year, then why not budget for their children's private education while they are there. If this is done specifically for Bangladeshi people, then what about other groups in the same situation? It was a plan that was doomed to fail from the start.

How about we open this up to every type of descendency. I have Belgian ancestry, with family in Belgium, Holland & New Zealand - I wasn't offered the chance to discover my origins. If a family member died/married/whatever then a trip was made that required no more than a week or 2 off school, not months to the detriment of my education.

If this plan is opened to one group, in this case Bangladeshi's, how long before every other nationality wants the same, and it would have to be agreed on the grounds of anti-discrimination - open the flood-gates

Meanwhile school staff are being made redundant (e.g. my sister) because the schools in this country don't have enough cash, let alone spread that cash around the world.

Thanks goodness the common sense result prevailed, nothing to do with race.

HURRAH

My oerspective is to make the best of unfulfilled potential. Call it damage limitation.



I think I could make it work, and pay off measurably into the exchequer, as an investment in human capacity over 10-20 year, this is an experiment in building an interesting educational technology.

It would seem that the council meeting attending public are adamant that this should have nothing to do with their tax contributions. 10 more clusterbombs standing on the wall...


AH from Calgary, this is not a bleat as you would like to classify it, but real amazement at how unimaginative people have become. You appear have trouble accepting that BEM has any relevance to policy makers and the tailoring of services to suit their constituents. sooooo lets all send them to the pub for after school lessons then!!

Quite apart from the idiocy of the scheme, it is designed to promote a multicultural environment with bias towards ethnic minorities.

Points to note;
- Not everyone is in favour of a multicultural society.
- The majority isn't necessarily in favour of never-ending special Privileges for the minority.
- Stupid ideas like this make reasonable people stop and think. In context, this isn't necessarily a good thing.

Like many people, 10 years ago I didn't give this sort of thing much thought.

Times change.

Lots of my family and friends take their children to Spain each year to experience the culture (otherwise known as holidays) as do many other people I know. Are there going to be plans drawn up to build a school out there for them? Not likely. They will just face the imposed fine when they return, like all UK citizens should do if they take their children out of school during school terms without permission. What sort of discrimination is this that favours one area of the community over others.

I was reading FA's (London) comments and at the same time trying to be understanding when all of a sudden I totally lost interest, i.e. He played the "Race Card". I am sick to death of this now very cheap tatic. The good news is that people are not as easily fooled these days, it's taken a long time for some but the penny is definately starting to drop. Alas, common sense has prevailed, thank god.

Why do the Bangledshi children need to be in Bangladesh during a school term, and why should I pay for it. I am sick to death of this stupid government catering for everyone but the lions share of the people who actually pay the tax into the kitty in the first place.
This is a stupid idea put forward by a stupid government hellbent on gaining a section of societys vote. As somebody pointed out earlier these sort of things cause ill feeling, which is understandable and that is where idiots call in the race card if you question these silly ideas.

can we have disney open up a school in orlando florida for manchester kids. this however should only be for christian kids !! do you spot the hypocracy before you pull out the racist card.

if this was to go ahead what would be next - one in bombay, one in karachi etc.

i'm sure the person who thinks up these ideas is paid a lot of good tax payers money too. i suggest they are redeployed sweeping the streets where they might be seen to do something useful and beneficial to the community.