The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Race Equality in Education was launched last month with former Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott as chair.
Founder and co-ordinator L’Myah Sherae, said the APPG aims to ensure that schools and other educational institutions are inclusive to all learners, staff and parents, irrespective of their racial background.
A week after the APPG launch, the Sewell Report was published. It said: “If there is racial bias within schools or the teaching profession, it has limited effect and other factors such as family structure, cultural aspirations and geography may offset this disadvantage".
In response to the Report, the Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister: “We, the undersigned, reject the findings of the ‘independent’ Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published… Should you and your Government be genuinely committed to acknowledging and addressing the issue of racial equity in the UK, we would call on you to repudiate the Commission’s findings immediately and withdraw its report.”
In her speech to the House of Commons, Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch said: “…the Government welcomes the [Report’s] thoughtful, balanced and evidence-based findings and analysis” and that they would “work at pace to produce a response” to the Report this summer.
One of the vice-chairs of the APPG, Windsor MP Adam Afriyie said that the Report was badly received because it challenged assumptions: “From my reading of it, it says that there are six or seven factors which affect educational attainment, and it’s not just racism. If we stand back from it, it appears to be self-evident that this is the case”.
He cited the educational attainment of Chinese and Asain students, concluding that their outcomes are not better because of “better IQs or energy for school”, as compared to other children of colour, but the “other factors” cited in the Report.
He added that the APPG “understands the inequality of outcomes and opportunities for specific groups exist, and aims to bring people together across political divides to…play a serious role in populating what the levelling up agenda means”.
Mr Afriyie said that there is currently “harmony and common ground” in the APPG but a future issue of conflict could be the “nuance on the decolonisation of the school curriculum”.
Yvonne Davis, a former headteacher and Ofsted inspector said that she is “disappointed and angry” as the Report makes every effort “not to acknowledge institutional racism”.
She added that with reference to the curriculum, Black history has been “disconnected” from British history for too long and that young people want to be valued and respected for their contributions made in society. “We need to create cultural esteem and raise attainment as well as a sense of belonging,” she said.
“We should start with the truth about colonialism, enslavement and the industrial revolution as the diverse past helps to understand the present”, Ms Davis said.
In sharp contrast to his fellow vice-chair of the APPG, former chair at the Race Disparity Advisory Group at No 10, Lord Simon Woolley wrote in a LinkedIn post: “Who would have seriously thought that in 2021 we’d still be arguing whether or not systemic race inequality exists? The grubby Sewell Report could have easily been written in the 1980s when denial reigned and forces pitted one minority community against another.”
In a further repudiation, Dr Patrick Vernon OBE, co-author of 100 Great Black Britons said of the Sewell Report: “To assume that there is no racism in schools is very naive”.
He believes the educational system is still very “elitist” and while the PM speaks of the levelling up agenda, this Report does not help social mobility as “it stigmatises communities and talent”.
The Sewell Report found that in 2019, 85.7% of all teachers in state-funded schools in England were White British.
Mr Afriyie said that the APPG will look into this over the next year to “drill down” on it. He clarified that it depends on which area of the country you live in. In his Windsor constituency, the ethnic minority in a part of the town is 1.4% and that is reflective of the neighbourhood. In contrast, in his childhood neighbourhood in Peckham, the diversity was higher. He issues the caveat that the blanket term BAME was unhelpful as it does not always look at the makeup between teachers, students, and student role models.
He said that while we have come a long way since the 1960’s in tackling racism, there was still a “lot of work for [them] to do”.
Ms Sherae said, “For far too long, we have witnessed students, parents and educators from BAME backgrounds being repeatedly failed by education systems. This is unacceptable”.