The Commission for Black Staff in FE is nearing the crucial part of its work. Completion of the research project commissioned from the University of North London is imminent, as is the commission’s own report and recommendations, due in July.
Given the data gathered to date, it looks like the final report will not make comfortable reading for the sector. Using the Macpherson definition of institutional racism, the facts as they stand on patterns of employment for black people in FE incontrovertibly demonstrate the sector is institutionally racist.
This early diagnosis does not mean that the prognosis for the sector is necessarily bleak. It is important to reflect on the positives: FE is the only education sector to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and set up a commission to report on the facts. This investigation shows the sector has neglected race equality, at least in employment practices. Macpherson says: “These are seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping”. What is important is how the sector responds.
Having picked up the gauntlet, are we ready to implement the measures required? This issue cuts to the quick of what we in education stand for, and those of us in FE who have a particular self-image as champions of the interests of those who were previously failed.
People perceive FE to be a liberal environment. Most FE practitioners associate racism with the the extreme right, and recoil from being considered either passive or active participants in unfair practices. For that reason, this discussion, and the sector’s response, will call for a high level of maturity and sophistication.
Rather than a defensive stance, I would hope that there would be a widespread acceptance of the facts as they stand, a desire to understand how this situation arose and, most pertinently, to embrace the recommendations of the commission. Even if, by the most generous interpretation, this situation arose by accident or neglect, turning it around will require active intervention.
Since Macpherson reported, there has been a steady cooling off in the nation’s enthusiasm to address the deficiencies that the Lawrence inquiry highlighted. Then, almost on cue, the disturbances in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford served as a wake-up call that this issue will not go away. September 11 also serves to remind us that social cohesion must remain a top priority in a heterogeneous society. We must see some action, and soon.
As colleges and other public bodies gear up to meet the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, some will be preparing to mitigate the bad press associated with the publication of monitoring data on their record as employers. This embarrassment will (or should) be most acute in the areas that collectively comprise 85 per cent of the minority ethnic population - East and West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire are key areas, but Greater London, with half of the entire minority population must be in the vanguard.
It is a disgrace that not one of the 49 or so mainstream colleges in the capital has a black principal, and that there are a tiny number of senior black staff - the source of tomorrow’s leaders . This is a situation that cannot, and will not, be allowed to continue unchallenged.
The reports into last summer’s riots cited FE colleges as a lone example of learning providers actively engaging with excluded communities at the centre of the unrest. This shows that the college sector can perform to the highest standards, given the collective will (and, of course, the financial incentives). My hope is that it will want to blaze a trail on this issue, rather than follow in the wake of other more dynamic parts of the public sector.
Robin Landman is a member of the Commission for Black Staff in FE, and secretary of the Network for Black Managers
