... any potential advantage in having access to the data. The pointlessness of this sort of data collection is illustrated by the fact that between 1966 and 1973, data was collected about immigrant school pupils in the UK, but the government later admitted, that "no use was made of the data" (Skellington, 1992). However, it could be argued that the existence of this data might suggest areas, which could be, investigated more thoroughly in future studies, hopefully to the benefit of the subjects. Data about the cultural background of both pupils and staff is now being collected once more, which again indicates the importance placed on 'race' as an aspect of society. The second, and potentially constructive, purpose is to help in the creation of government policy with regard to equal opportunities, and to highlight problems within society. It is only possible, for example, for government to provide funding and services to ...

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