You may want to know the information about education in prison statistics. If so, you are able to read the information below about Prison Education Statistics April 2019 to March 2020 according to the Official Statistics Bulletin from the Ministry of Justice which was published on August 5th, 2021.
There were 67,663 prisoners who took part in courses. There were 29,723 prisoners who joined courses below level 2, 24,772 joined in Level 2 courses, 1,226 in Level 3 courses and 8 in Level 4 or higher and these are for non-functional skills courses. There were 30,168 prisoners who took part in functional skills courses.
In total, 78% or around 53,111 of prisoners who took part in courses achieved at least a partial grade / level. There were a small number of courses at level 4 or above (all courses above A-Levels) where 100% of participants obtained at least a partial grade or level. The lowest rate of achievement was for Functional skills courses in English, Maths, and ICT at 54% as cited from the Official Statistics Bulletin from the Ministry of Justice.
55,099 prisoners completed an initial assessment. Of the prisoners, there were 53,101 who took at least one Maths assessment and 53,247 took at least one English assessment.
57,284 Maths and 57,416 English initial assessments were taken by Prisoners. As cited from the Official Statistics Bulletin, there were more than half of initial assessment results which were at entry level 1 – 3 (below GCSE), with 61% of Maths and 57% of English.
26% of prisoners who took part in courses had a learning difficulty or disability confirmed through an LDD assessment. It is slightly lower than the 29% of those at initial assessment.
There were 30,168 prisoners who took part in functional skills courses and 16,329 (54%) achieved at least a partial grade or level. There were 17,680 prisoners who took part in English functional skills courses and 51% (9,038) at least partially achieved a grade or level. There were 16,991 prisoners who took part in Maths functional courses and 50% (8,431) achieved a grade or level.
Maths and English Initial Assessment
According to the Official Statistics Bulletin from the Ministry of Justice which was published on August 5th, 2021, here is the information about Initial Assessment for Maths and English.
- There were 55,099 prisoners who completed an initial assessment.
Of these prisoners, there were 53,101 prisoners who did at least one Math assessment and 53,247 prisoners who did at least one English assessment.
- 57,284 Maths and 57,416 English initial assessments were taken by prisoners.
The results of most initial assessments were at entry level 1 – 3, with 61% of Maths and 57% of English.
- Overall, there were 29% of prisoners who took an initial assessment who had a learning difficulty or disability (LDD) which were confirmed through an LDD assessment.
It varied across ethnic groups and it was highest for White at 33% and lowest for Other ethnic groups at 17%.
There were 55,099 prisoners who completed an initial assessment in the year ending 31 March 2020 which was registered on the CURIOUS system. It is important for you to note that prisoners took initial assessments before they engage in learning and are separate to courses.
In the year ending March 2020, the same number of prisoners took Maths initial assessments where there were 53,101 and English initial assessments where there were 53,247, with the vast majority (51,249) taking both.
In the year ending 31 March 2020, in total, there were 57,284 Maths and 57,416 English initial assessments. There are more initial assessments than prisoners taking them because it is possible for a Prisoner to take more than one initial assessment in each subject. An indication of someone’s levels of English and maths are provided by initial assessments and you can check the table below.
| Initial assessment level / course level | Example |
| Entry level 1, 2, 3 | Entry level functional skills
Entry level English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) |
| Level 1 | GCSE – grades 3, 2, 1 or grades D, E, F, G
Level 1 functional skills Level 1 ESOL |
| Level 2 | GCSE – grades 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or grades A*, A, B, C
Level 2 functional skills Level 2 ESOL |
| Level 3 | A level
Level 3 ESOL Level 3 NVQ |
| Level 4+ | All higher-level courses |
- The results of 61% of maths and 57% of English initial assessment were at the entry levels 1 to 3.
- The results of 28% of maths and 30% of English initial assessment were at level 1.
- The results of 11% of maths and 13% of English initial assessment were at Level 2 or above.
Figure 1: The number of English and Maths initial assessments prisoners took by level
The Information About Characteristics of Prisoners Who Took Initial Assessments
According to the Official Statistics Bulletin by the Ministry of Justice, here is the information about characteristics of prisoners who took initial assessments. There were 71% of prisoners who took at least one initial assessment who were aged 25 to 49. There were 18% who were 18 to 24 and 11% who were aged 50 and over. If it is compared to the prisoners population, a slightly higher proportion of younger prisoners took at least one initial assessment.
There were 6% of female offenders who took at least one initial assessment, compared to 5% of the prison population. There were 72% of prisoners who sat at least one initial assessment with a recorded ethnicity declaring it as White, with the 2nd largest group declaring Black/ African/ Caribbean/ Black British at 13%. Prisoners from an Asian/ Asian British group comprised 8% of initial assessments, Mixed/ Multiple Ethnic Groups comprised 5% while 2% were from Other ethnic groups.
There were 29% of prisoners who did an initial assessment who had a learning difficulty or disability (LDD). They were confirmed through an LDD assessment. The remaining 71% were confirmed not to have an LDD or were not assessed.
By ethnic group, the proportions varied, with the highest rate of confirmed LDD among the white ethnic group as you are able to see from the list below.
- White ethnic group was 33%.
- A Mixed / multiple ethnic group was 25%.
- Black African / Caribbean / Black British ethnic groups were 20%.
- Asian / Asian British ethnic groups were 18%.
- Other ethnic groups were 17%.
- ethnicity which was Unknown / not provided was 30%.
Well, that’s the information that I got about prison education statistics that I cited from Official Statistics Bulletin from Ministry of Justice that you are able to access at here.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
