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FEATURE
Empowering black and minority ethnic teachers
Coalition Government: what it means for me…
Black and minority ethnic teachers gave their views on the Government’s package of spending cuts and education reforms.
Michelle
“BME workers tend to be concentrated in the lower status, less secure jobs so I can see that these cuts are going to disproportionately affect us, especially BME women.
“It will also have a huge impact on the next generation from the BME community, as young people are going to find it hard to start careers and get training. If we think this is tough for us it is going to be even harder for them. “The effect of these cuts will echo down the generations.”
Oxford
Matthew
“I am scared for the implications for my pension and possibly my job as well. No job is safe at the moment and I feel the politicians are gambling with our lives.
“Even if my job is safe we are going to lose a lot of the school-based and local authority support we have at the moment. Without the support I receive in the classroom the quality of teaching and learning is going to be seriously affected.”
Essex
Sherene
Why are free schools being developed when we can’t even afford to support the schools we already have?
“If we can’t afford to maintain class sizes or provide proper suppor t to SEN students it is wrong to give more money to private groups to set up new schools which are just going to drain money away from the existing ones.
“They are also going to undermine standards by letting unqualified teachers teach in free schools which will damage the profession.”
Slough
Black and minority ethnic (BME) teachers are likely to be affected disproportionately by the Coalition Government’s programme of spending cuts and educational reforms, NASUWT members have agreed.
Over 300 members gathered in Birmingham for this year’s BME Teachers Consultation Conference and sent a loud message of opposition to the Government’s plans. Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary [pictured right], outlined the scale of the assault facing state education and teacher’s jobs, pay and working conditions, an attack which is likely to hit BME teachers and communities particularly hard, she warned. Highlighting plans by the Secretary of State Michael Gove to align performance management processes with capability proceedings, Ms Keates outlined research undertaken by the NASUWT showing that the majority of capability cases were instigated not due to underperformance but as a result of bullying or harassment from management against an individual.
“We already know that BME teachers are being discriminated against in schools. These plans simply give some school managers a licence to bully and intimidate staff whose ‘face doesn’t fit’” she said. “It is highly likely that BME teachers are going to be targeted as a result of these misguided and dangerous plans and in many cases forced out of the jobs they love.”
Institutions as varied as the North West Regional Development Agency and the Institute of Fiscal Studies have warned of the huge impact the Government’s agenda will have on BME communities, Ms Keates added, pointing to the Government’s proposals to drop the duty on schools to report racist incidents and remove from ofsted the duty on community cohesion, as evidence of its lack of commitment to tackling racial discrimination.
“The Home Secretary said recently that equality has become too associated with political correctness and that all we need to do is to trust wider society and businesses to do the right thing without recourse to regulation. But if they were doing the right thing in the first place there would have been no need for the legislation we currently have.”
The theme for the event was empowerment and Ms Keates urged members to get involved in the Union and fight the Government’s plans.
“We all must work together to make a stand to protect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society and the public services on which we all rely.
“I believe we still have much to fight for and by working together we can win and protect the state education system which we all hold so dear."
Empowerment card launched
To celebrate the skills, achievements and vital contributions that BME teachers make to the profession, the NASUWT has launched an empowerment card. NASUWT research has found that institutional racism is blighting the careers of many BME teachers and the card aims to reinforce the solidarity and support on offer from the Union to members. Racism and discrimination can and should be challenged and the NASUWT is committed to empowering, guiding and supporting members to tackle inequality and realise their potential.
Copies of the empowerment card are available free of charge from the NASUWT by calling 0121 453 6150 or emailing
despatch@mail.nasuwt.org.uk.
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