Institutionally racist: Report tells how black children are being discriminated against in schools

Black pupils are three times more likely to be excluded than white, and five times less likely to be on the official register of gifted and talented students. Why? Because, according to a Whitehall report, teachers in England and Wales are unconsciously prejudiced against Caribbean-origin pupils. Ian Griggs reports

Published: 10 December 2006

The choice facing Lord Adonis was stark: accept that black pupils are more likely to be badly behaved or brand Britain's schools "institutionally racist".

One of Tony Blair's favourite ministers had been presented with the conclusions of a high-level official report into why black pupils are three times more likely than whites to be excluded from school.

Although couched in careful Whitehall language, it makes for uncomfortable reading. "The exclusions gap is caused by largely unwitting, but systematic, racial discrimination in the application of disciplinary and exclusions policies," concludes the report by Peter Wanless, the director of school performance and reform at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), and two other officials.

"Even with the best efforts to improve provision for excluded pupils, the continued existence of the exclusion gap means that black pupils are disproportionately denied mainstream education and the life chances that go with it."

After siding with commentators who believe that the fault lies mainly with schools, the officials say in the report that the minister has to decide whether to use an incendiary term. "If we choose to use the term 'institutional racism', we need to be sensitive to the likely reception by schools [but] if we choose not to use the term, we need to make sure the tone of our message remains sufficiently challenging."

In the event, Lord Adonis ducked the issue, arguing that since the report does not baldly conclude that Britain's entire school system is " institutionally racist", the term and issue could be quietly shelved.

But now, The Independent on Sunday can reveal the unsettling reality of how schools are failing generations of black children because of unconscious prejudice.

In November 2005, ministers ordered an urgent study into why so many black pupils were being thrown out of school. The "priority review" led by Mr Wanless reported in the autumn. It finds black children are five times less likely to be officially registered as "gifted or talented". It also finds that 1,000 black pupils are permanently excluded from school each year and 30,000 receive temporary bans.

And the problem could be worse than official figures show, the report says, because of the existence of "unofficial exclusions", in which head teachers persuade parents to remove their children from school voluntarily, or simply do not report exclusions centrally.

Around 100 schools and 20 local authorities, none of which is named, have been identified as giving the most cause for concern. Schools could be in breach of their duties under the Race Relations Act 2000, which requires public bodies to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination.

But a key question is whether the behaviour of black children is generally worse than their white peers or can the higher proportion of exclusions be explained by teachers' unwitting prejudice?

The report weighs claims that factors outside school play the larger part in the problem against those that say schools take the greater share of responsibility. The first camp suggests black pupils are subject to influences outside schools that cause them to behave more aggressively.

"On the face of it, this view is supported by the statistical evidence that black pupils are most likely to be excluded for 'violence against a pupil' and more likely than average to be excluded for 'violence against a member of staff'," the report says.

"The portrayal of images heavily dominated by the experience of black Americans has encouraged growing levels of aggression and a view that violence is a product of poverty and disempowerment. Such cultural factors have encouraged young men to posture aggressively as a means of 'getting respect' and resolving conflicts."

But the authors favour the second explanation, which suggests black pupils are disproportionately punished. They cite powerful evidence of bias in comparing exam results remotely marked against those assessed by teachers. When marked "blind", black children "significantly outperformed" their white peers. But when assessed by their teachers, the opposite was the case.

Quoting academics who say schools are to blame, the report states: "The exclusion gap is due to institutional racism decisions made by schools and their staff which have the cumulative effect of producing a racist outcome.

"It is argued that unintentional racism stems from long-standing social conditioning involving negative images of black people, particularly black men, which stereotype them as threatening. Such conditioning is reinforced by the media portrayal of black 'street culture'. It encourages school staff to expect black pupils to be worse behaved and to perceive a greater level of threat.

"While a compelling case can be made for the existence of institutional racism in schools, there is a comparatively weak basis for arguing that street culture has a more persuasive influence on black young people than it has on other young people."

The report warns that focusing on "out-of-school" factors would imply that black boys are more likely to be excluded because they are worse behaved than other children. "This would be regarded by many as a racist viewpoint," the report says.

It goes on to say that if nothing is done to address the exclusions gap, it will give credence to the subconscious view that black children's failure in school, and wider social exclusion as a result of it, is "to be expected ".

But Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said he believed the findings of the report were spurious. " Pupils will be disciplined for bad behaviour if they exhibit bad behaviour," he said. "In my experience as a head teacher my colleagues have always shown absolute integrity in how all young people are treated."

Mr Brookes said unofficial exclusions were often a good method of dealing with incidents without it ending up on a child's school record. "For temporary exclusions I have in the past said to parents that a child needs to go home and calm down for a bit but that's about having a good relationship with parents," he said. "In permanent cases, we have a 'managed move' which may well be a fresh start which is right for that pupil."

Mr Brookes said the question of whether in-school or out-of-school factors were to blame for the exclusion gap was a complex one. "There are cases where there is a clash of school and external culture which can cause problems, but this is rare."

Kemi Pearce is an advice worker for the Advisory Centre for Education, a charity that works with parents whose children have been excluded. She insisted there was a wealth of evidence of prejudicial treatment of black children in school.

"There has been a lot of research into how exclusions affect ethnic minorities more than the average for other racial groups, and that is reflected in the calls we receive," she said. "My gut feeling is that there are more black children affected by exclusions."

Julia Thomas, an education solicitor for the Children's Legal Centre who acts on behalf of children who have been excluded from school, agreed: " Some exclusions do have a racial element to them and Afro-Caribbean families experience a higher rate of exclusions than other groups."

Exclusions have alarming implications for society. Excluded children are more likely to commit serious crimes, to reoffend and to smoke, drink or take drugs.

Martin Narey, the former director general of the prison service, said in 2001 that: "The 13,000 young people excluded from school each year might as well be given a date by which to join the prison service some time later."

Excluded pupils are also one-third less likely to achieve five good GCSEs, 3 per cent more likely to be unemployed and, on average, earn £36,000 less during their lifetimes. In a poll of 1,000 black parents at a conference on London schools and black children in 2002, exclusions emerged as the top issue, above academic attainment and the deficit of black teachers. Some in the black community even view the exclusion gap as equivalent to " stop-and-search" procedures in the criminal justice system.

The report says some schools are doing well at tackling the gap and gives examples of good disciplinary procedures. It says strong leadership on race equality and behavioural issues is key, as is taking the view that exclusion is a last resort and represents a failure by the school.

Carron Adams-Ofori, a head teacher at a school in Hackney, recently won the Teacher of the Year award for her work with young black boys. "There is a disparity, but I would challenge anyone who feels it has to be that way. One thing we have done is to look at leadership in this instance with black boys as leaders."

Despite the report's uncompromising conclusions, Lord Adonis has drawn back from using the term "institutional racism". He has done so partly because the Government fears a backlash from the right-wing media but also because ministers fear it would alienate schools.

The Department for Education faces an uphill battle in trying to address the problem because schools are hostile to the concept of race relations, a Commission for Racial Equality study found in 2003. It found schools were significantly less likely to respond to a survey on race relations than other public authorities and, of those that did, only half had set goals for improvement.

The CRE found that only two thirds of schools that responded believed race equality laws produced positive benefits, compared with 74 per cent in the police, 80 per cent in higher education and 89 per cent in government. " We have long said that there are differential outcomes for different ethnic groups in terms of achievement, especially in the case of young black boys," a CRE spokeswoman said. "However, the cultural outlook for this group is also a factor. The CRE believes black children need role models and, ideally, parents to play a more active role in their children's education."

The CRE said local authorities were in the driving seat with regard to monitoring in schools. "However, all state schools should have their own race equality policy to address such issues," the spokeswoman added. "Schools need to be proactive, challenging wherever appropriate with monitoring, exclusion and harassment policies. They will then be in a position to build an effective network with pupils, staff, parents and the local community to create a safe learning and working environment."

The DfES itself does not escape criticism of its commitment on race relations in its own report. "The response to requirements of race equality legislation from local authorities, schools and parts of the DfES ranges from grudging minimum compliance to open hostility," the report says.

The authors are so concerned at the implications of their own report that they considered releasing a sanitised version of it that does not use the word "racism", for fear of alienating teachers' unions and education authorities. But the report says any policy change might be difficult to enforce because schools with a bad track record will view change as an unfair and pointless bureaucratic burden and will respond by " completely ignoring it".

A significant number, if not a "majority", of schools and local authorities, it is feared, will drag their feet over reform. "There is a danger that a policy will be met by a 'box-ticking' approach to indicate minimum compliance or result... in schools doing something but not relating their efforts to a tangible reduction in the exclusions gap," the report says.

Ms Pearce said teachers needed to be more aware of how they interact with pupils. "There is good guidance out there on avoiding discrimination on grounds of race but the question is, has the school taken action?" She added: "Schools can have a policy but is it in the 'hearts and minds' of the school? It's a huge obstacle to achieving fairness in terms of exclusions."

The report recommends a campaign aimed at the entire school community to address the question of how black children are treated. It says the 20 worst-performing local authorities and 100 worst-performing schools for exclusion gaps must be supported to change their attitudes towards black pupils.

A variety of strategies, including targeting pupils at risk of exclusion with support services such as mentoring, and improving discipline techniques, are to be considered.

It calls for a "much more robust response from Ofsted", the school inspection body, to bring about change in the worst performers. With this support, the report says, the exclusion gap could be closed by 2010.

"The report shown to ministers earlier in the year did not conclude that there was institutional racism in the school system," a DfES spokesman said. "In the light of this detailed work, ministers concluded that it would be inaccurate and counter-productive to brand the school system as racist. However, there is much more that schools, parents and the Government can do to ensure that every child fulfils their potential, whatever their background."

The NUT said it had undertaken work in the area of black children's achievement. "We have taken strides to tackle institutional racism and instil positive attitudes in schools," said John Bangs, the head of education for the union. "Schools are actively targeting areas of under-achievement, but I don't think the situation is perfect at all."

Mr Bangs agreed that there were cases of subconscious prejudice on behalf of teachers in some schools. "I think we may have to concede there may be such cases," he said.

He also said the evidence that black boys were five times less likely to be identified as gifted and talented was more of a class issue. "You could apply this statistic just as easily to white, working-class boys."

As for the exclusions gap, Mr Bangs said there were complex reasons for this, including out-of-school factors such as street culture. "We have to raise aspirations of young Afro-Caribbean boys, and everyone from teachers to the community has to have these high aspirations, linked to practical outcomes... Nothing is perfect, but the question is, how do you raise aspiration? Because clearly it is a problem."

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, which represents secondary school heads, rejected suggestions of institutional racism: "I think schools are very racially tolerant places in comparison with what can happen in society outside their gates."

On the question of schools' failure to identify as many gifted and talented black children, Dr Dunford said: "So many of these children have very few educational advantages at home." He added that, in many cases, their parents took less interest in education than parents in Indian and Chinese communities.

Voices of experience

"I was happy in school... but black kids were seen as being different"

Oona King, former Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow

"It's not helpful to stereotype all black boys as failing - many are succeeding"

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham

"There aren't many black male teachers, who could be setting a good example"

Donna Bernard, GMTV Presenter

"I wasn't supported by my teachers"

Chief Supt Ali Dezai, National Black Police Association

"Girls find it a lot easier to get on without having a father"

Javine, Singer

"We learnt that if we did come across any discrimination it wasn't our fault"