On Monday 14th December, the latest report highlighted that almost half of all schools in England have no black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) teachers.
The Making Progress? report further highlighted that schools which reflect diversity in their teaching staff have unfortunately concerns around career progression of those teachers from minority backgrounds. The same research paper also noted that BAME teachers face a “hidden workload” of tackling racial inequalities in schools, which can lead to burnout and high turnover. Commissioned by researchers at UCL’s Institute for Education, the report questions the idea that the education system is making progress in terms of racial equality in teaching. According to figures for 2019, 65% of pupils and 86% of teachers are white British. Analysis of the 2018 School Workforce Census and related administrative school census datasets, found that 46% of all schools in England had no BAME teachers at all.
According to the report, “All of the teachers interviewed disapproved of the universal whiteness of senior leadership teams (SLT) in otherwise diverse schools. This issue plays a role in teachers’ decisions to move schools because of a perceived negative impact on the organisational culture. BAME teachers had the same high levels of workload as all teachers, plus an additional ‘hidden workload’ of coping with racism,” the report notes.”
The analysis also found that while half of schools (53%) had BAME teaching assistants, a quarter (26%) had no BAME staff at all, and only 16% employed more than a fifth of their teachers from BAME groups.
Tayyab Ditta, a teacher in Leeds had earlier said, "A lack of BME teachers meant I had no role models so I never envisaged becoming a teacher. I remember seeing people from my community who'd become successful doctors or engineers but I never saw someone who was a teacher and that is a barrier we need to break down."
