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The government needs to urgently address homophobic bullying in schools, says Lord Collins of Highbury.
As the Education Bill progresses through both houses of Parliament we should welcome its focus on ensuring discipline in our schools.
The schools white paper states that: 'tackling bullying is an essential part of raising attainment', and that academic achievement of pupils can never be detached from providing all students with a safe and secure space in which to learn.
Indeed, the minister of state for schools has made it clear that he sees provisions in the bill as vital to tackling all bullying in schools.
Research by YouGov for Stonewall has demonstrated endemic levels of homophobic bullying in our schools. Ninety per cent of teachers in secondary schools and, even more shocking, more than two in five teachers in primary schools, say that they currently witness homophobic bullying in their schools.
This pervasive bullying affects young people, regardless of sexual orientation, in all schools – including faith schools, academies and free schools – and demonstrates the urgency that is needed from the government to tackle this type of bullying.
It's vital that we give teachers the powers not only to deal with bullying when it occurs, but also to implement strategies to prevent it from happening in the first place. Both raising standards within our schools and tackling bullying are reliant on ensuring Britain's schools have the highest standard of teachers in the world.
The best teachers accept that if their schools are not recording levels of homophobic bullying, as with other prejudice-based bullying, they cannot hope to reduce its incidence.
I have real concerns that the government seems to be willing the ends, but not the means, to tackle homophobic bullying in schools.
While they have set out an admirable objective, they have failed to state how they intend to train teachers to the highest standards and with the required skills – an ambition that underpins the core aim of this legislation.
Raymond Collinswas raised to the peerage as Baron Collins of Highbury, of Highbury in the London Borough of Islington in 2011. He is currently general secretary of the Labour Party and an opposition whip.
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