"NASUWT research shows that nearly one in five teachers said they have experienced discrimination at work in the last year"

Concerted action needed to tackle prejudice and discrimination in schools, NASUWT tells national conference

The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, will today call for concerted action, at both school and national level, to address prejudice and discrimination affecting staff and pupils.

Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT Deputy General Secretary, will be addressing a national conference today organised by the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) to promote the resource pack for schools on Equality: Making It Happen which was sponsored by the NASUWT.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“Teachers are telling us that there is a clear need for concerted action within schools, starting at leadership level, for action to address prejudice and discrimination.

“NASUWT research shows that nearly one in five teachers said they have experienced discrimination at work in the last year, yet 85% of these teachers said they did not report the discrimination to anyone in their school.

“86% of LGBT teachers say they do not think the Government is doing enough to communicate the importance of LGBTI equality to schools and colleges and over half say their school was not committed to LGBTI equality for staff and pupils.

“Seven in ten BME teachers do not feel progress has been made in ensuring that BME teachers are treated fairly when applying for jobs or promotion.

“Less than one in ten women teachers feel that flexible working requests are encouraged in their schools.

“We cannot ensure equality for all children and young people in our schools if we do not tackle discrimination against school staff. The two go hand in hand.

“Schools should lead on social justice and equality and be challenging, not condoning discrimination and prejudice related bullying.”

Speaking at the launch, Dr Roach said:

“This guidance on Equality for schools will be an invaluable tool for teachers, at a time, when high quality resources in this area are in short supply.

“Many teachers understand the importance of the issues explored in this guide and all schools need to be encouraged to be standard-bearers for equality and to resist those who would seek to trivialise this work.

“This guidance will support schools to become genuinely places where everyone – pupils and teachers – are safe, included and respected.

“Now is the right time to be arguing passionately for equality, solidarity, inclusion and human rights to be at the core of our school system in a post-Brexit context.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

The CSIE conference, Equality: Making It Happen is being held at Resource for London between 10am and 4pm today (June 29th).

The NASUWT will address the conference and is also running a workshop examining race equality in schools.

The conference will also mark the publication of Equality: Making It Happen – a guide to help schools across the UK advance equality. The new guide has been sponsored by the NASUWT and developed by the CSIE.