Press Release

GTC Chief Executive calls for increased support for schools on race equality issues

13 September 2005

The Chief Executive of the General Teaching for England (GTC) has called for all those in positions of authority in education to place meeting the needs of black and minority ethnic pupils higher up the agenda.

Chief Executive Carol Adams says that more must be done to support the commitment of teachers and heads to the achievement of pupils from all ethnic backgrounds and to challenging stereotypes and opposing prejudice. She calls for greater dissemination of good practice in the field to support schools in ensuring the positive development of pupils.

Carol Adams says: “We know that the attainment of children from some minority ethnic groups is lower than that of other pupils at all stages of education and that for some it decreases in relative terms between entering and leaving school. The harder-to-measure objectives of intercultural understanding, tolerance and community cohesion are also vitally important.”

She adds:

“It is clear that race equality needs to be integral to all that happens in a school, given its central importance to the way teachers teach, the classroom climate and school culture and the individual learning of each pupil.  Teachers need access to up-to-date useful resources and effective strategies to enable them to feel supported and enabled to do this work.  Isolation, lack of information and of clear policy and expectation continue to be issues.

“The way in which we address or fail to address the education, attainment and integration of ethnic minority pupils will have major repercussions for our society in terms of social cohesion, good race relations and the achievement of substantial numbers of young people. We have committed teachers and educationalists doing what they can and many organisations are working to support them.
"All those in positions of authority in education need to place meeting the needs of these young people higher up the agenda and to exercise greater leadership in order to enable and support those working in our schools and communities.”

Achieve, the GTC’s network for education professionals who promote race equality in schools, was launched in September 2004 and has set up three project groups to look at different areas of interest. One group looks at the statutory duty of schools to create a Race Equality Policy; another is for black and minority ethnic teachers and other professionals and aims to support career development and the third looks at support for asylum seeker and refugee pupils.

Carol’s comments form part of a speech at a fringe meeting at the TUC conference in Brighton, Tuesday 13th September 2005. The meeting was organised by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).