 One of the main problems with black and ethnic minority education has historically been the lack of drive shown by government to take action specifically aimed at these communities. It is only in recent years (and after years of campaigning) that the current Labour Government has decided to have specific schemes aimed at raising levels of attainment for black students. The problem is that generalised schemes tend to overlook the specific problems faced by specific groups of students. In order to create an even playing field specific programmes must be used.  However, once the Labour government agreed to look into the specific problem of Black and ethnic minority under-achievement, they refused to set targets for improvement. This effectively just leaves recommendations, reports and proposals but little action – or effective way of monitoring progress.  In less direct ways, policies relating to black and ethnic minorities have an effect on the education of their children: - Removing the right to free English lessons for immigrants with the right to remain in the country - Restricting the rights of foreign teachers to work in British schools – e.g. most recently with Caribbean teachers whose immigration status was put under jeopardy because they were asked to have a UK qualification (for which they had to pay). Beyond the Commonwealth, there are thousands of qualified teachers (e.g. who come to the UK as refugees) who are not allowed to teach without a UK qualification. - Not giving enough funding for schools with a high intake of immigration children, therefore leading to a shortfall for specialist language services for example. Also, this has led to tensions between the white British population and immigrant populations. - Strict immigration controls mean that children of immigrants are in a vulnerable position: they may be put into detention centres, deported etc or live under fear of being removed from the country. - New welfare rules will mean that single parents will face more pressure to return to work. Single parents of children above one year old will have to begin the job-searching process (CV-writing, interview training etc) and will be forced to take on 4 weeks of full-time work (voluntary or otherwise) or to train/retrain.