By Eric King And Lucy Caulkett-
The Guardian newspaper has released information revealing that a record number of children are being excluded for racist bullying. The revelation has prompted calls for an urgent government intervention to tackle bigotry and prejudice in schools across Britain.
Statistics revealed that last year, 4,590 cases of racial abuse among school students were considered serious enough to warrant fixed or permanent exclusion, up from 4,085 last year.
The Guardian’s report states this to be the highest leap in a decade, following a stable rate since 2008-9, when the figure was 3,950. The data was drawn from 39 local authorities which shows a similar rise in racist incidents, surging from 2,694 to 3,651 in three years. The spread of racist bullying in Uk schools is an expression of deep rooted biases in society that need to be addressed at every level. In schools, teacher need to do more to educate pupils about the need to understand that superiority of any kind can not be based on race.
Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers said the rise in exclusions was “disturbing”, but added that they showed unacceptable behaviour is being seriously challenged by schools. “[Our] own research shows that overt and covert instances of racism are a daily fact of life for far too many black and minority ethnic pupils and teachers,” she said.
Labour MP David Lammy has put it down to the British Immigration system, but others would insist it is simply the manifestation of humans seeking superiority on the basis of prejudicial factors. Which ever it is, well education is capable of addressing it suffciently.
The Guardian newspaper also reveals increased numbers of racist incidents in primary and secondary schools in a three years period. Freedom of information figures from 39 local authority areas show a rise from 2,702 incidents in 2014 to 3,660 in 2017. In Glasgow the number of reports for racist bullying in local authority-run schools went from 35 to 195 across that time period. A Glasgow city council spokeswoman said: “There is no place for racism in Glasgow and our schools take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of bullying incidents.”
HATE
Guardian researchers said the rise in racist incidents have been put down to increased hate crimes and bigotry in society at large. The coalition government are said to have removed a duty schools once had to monitor the incidence of racist bullying. However, reports that school teachers cannot handle the spate of racially charged attacks towards them too, is a dreadful reality for any society to experience. Some have said the spike could have arised due to a zero-tolerance approach to racism believed to exist.
If accurate, it calls for a multi-facted approach to effectively address the issue. The Department of Education and Ofsted are being called to intervene on this issue . Understanding why looking condescendingly on another from a different race will need to be shown to be myopic and utterly foolish. School pupils must go beyond tolerance and understand that the quality of a man depends on the content of an individual’s character, not the colour of their skin.
Schools are now being called to discuss issues about racism, intolerance, identity, migration and our colonial history. It is hoped the situation is not as widespread as thought, but such are the findings of the report.