Publication review: Race equality and education

Racial inequalities in the UK educational system have persisted for too long. The issue of underachievement and those related to it must be addressed. It is vital to ensure all children are able to learn, achieve, progress and make the transition to further education, higher education or the labour market.

ATL supports the view that education is a basic human right. It is imperative that the UK meets its obligation under the United Nations covenants to provide education for all children. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 aims to enable the UK to achieve this.

Racial inequalities in the UK educational system have persisted for too long. Far too many ethnic minority pupils, such as black pupils, travellers of Irish heritage pupils, Gypsy/Roma pupils, pupils of mixed white and black heritage, Bangladeshi and Pakistani pupils, are underachieving in our schools. The issue of underachievement and those related to it must be addressed. It is vital to ensure all children are able to learn, achieve, progress and make the transition to further education, higher education or the labour market.

Schools and teachers play a valuable role in promoting good race relations between people of different racial groups, eliminating unlawful racial discrimination and promoting equality of outcomes between these groups, but they need support in order to continue to do so. ATL believes that this publication will help enable teachers to fulfil this role and help schools meet their legal obligations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. It is in the interests of society, our economy and our country that our schools enable all our children to have a good start in life and become active citizens.

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