'Scared' white teachers fail black students

Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
Sunday January 6, 2002
The Observer

White women teachers are failing black schoolboys because they are frightened of them, a leading Labour MP has claimed, in remarks certain to spark a furious debate over standards in schools.
Bad behaviour goes unchallenged from an early age because staff unfamiliar with black culture are physically intimidated by black children, according to Diane Abbott. This, she argues, allows problems to escalate to a stage where the child risks being excluded.

Black boys are four times as likely as their white peers to be thrown out of school, according to figures studied by the Prime Minister's troubleshooting Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU), which has begun a cross-government inquiry into ethnic minority underachievement in employment and education.

Abbott, who will stage a conference in March to highlight what she calls a 'silent catastrophe', argues in an article in today's Observer that as schools are primarily staffed by women, 'it would be remarkable if all white women teachers were entirely free from the racial stereotypes that permeate this society about black men.'

Teenage black boys are 'often bigger than their white counterparts and may come from a culture which is more physical,' she adds. 'It seems a black boy doesn't have to be long out of disposable nappies for some teachers to see him as a miniature gangster rapper.'

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington now wants Education Secretary Estelle Morris to issue national guidelines for closing the gap between the school performance of black and white children.

Abbott argues black parents must also be prepared to work better with schools and that the different factors affecting achievement are complex. However, it is her remarks about white teachers which will fuel controversy, and last night the National Union of Teachers hit back.

'Physical stature is a fact for teachers in dealing with boys who are out of control but that obviously isn't a particular problem associated only with black pupils,' said a spokeswoman. 'I would like to see her evidence, frankly. One of the difficulties we have in dealing with working-class kids of whatever colour is that they become demoralised and disaffected more easily than the girls - they are more likely to have a "street life" than the girls and they are more vulnerable to the temptations outside the classroom.'

The landmark 1985 Swann report on ethnic minority pupils, cited by Abbott, concluded there was no single reason for black underachievement but 'rather a network of widely differing attitudes and expectations on the part of teachers and the education system and as a whole, and on the part of West Indian parents'. Others, including the black academic Tony Sewell, have argued however that it is black youth culture - prioritising material achievement such as wearing the right labels over academic success - that damages children's chances.

While five-year-old black Caribbean children are at least equalling white children, by the end of primary school they are lagging behind. Black Caribbean boys are less likely than whites to stay on at school after 16, less likely to get into the traditional universities and, like all ethnic minority groups, are less likely to gain top degrees. Average hourly earnings for black school leavers are £4.48 against £5.48 for young white men.

Yet black Caribbean girls are almost as likely to go into the sixth form as white classmates, and while unemployment rates are higher, where they are in jobs their earnings are actually higher than white girls', suggesting simple racism is not the explanation.