Speaking at a conference on “Managing equality of opportunity into the 21st century” at London University’s Institute of Education, sponsored by The TES, Sir Herman Ouseley said that the Office for Standards in Education gives racial equality a low priority and that the issue is being neglected by the education system as a whole.

Only one-fifth of OFSTED reports mention equality in the main findings section, he said, and only 16 per cent of reports referred to equal opportunities in their list of “key issues” for action. No report treated behaviour and discipline as issues of equality.

“That analysis is disturbing and disappointing,” said Mr Ouseley. “The reports can give the message to headteachers and governors that equality of opportunity is a side issue of little importance.

“A concern with equality can be squeezed out of the inspection system. This is simply unacceptable.”

Mr Ouseley told the conference that the collapse of Section 11 (language support) funding in many inner-city areas threatens to “degrade” the whole system of education.

He said that the new Single Regeneration Budget has failed to cover the costs of language support in Bradford, Bolton, Manchester, Leicestershire, Nottingham and Birmingham. In London, North Kensington, Camden and Hammersmith have all lost out.

He called on the Government to protect the budget for language support.

The education system, he said, is “riddled with inequality”. He pointed to evidence that teachers have low expectations of minority pupils; that Afro-Caribbean pupils are more likely to be excluded than white pupils - even for the same offence; and that teachers are ill-equipped to deal with the needs of minority pupils.

At the same time, only 2 per cent of teachers are of ethnic minority origin, compared with a 5.5 per cent representation in the general population.

This bleak picture, said Sir Herman, is a major contributor to the “devastating” fact that 62 per cent of young black men in London are unemployed.

“Clearly patterns of inequality which are so ubiquitous and so damaging need a response that is equally ubiquitous. It needs leadership at school, LEA and government level.

“The pursuit of racial equality is not an exotic or quixotic added extra, but absolutely central to a high quality system.”