SOME ethnic groups are still struggling to gain places on postgraduate teacher-training courses despite government attempts to spread the recruitment net.

Over the past eight years, black African applicants have consistently found it harder than any other ethnic group to gain a place on a PGCE course. Sixty per cent of graduates from this ethnic group who applied for courses starting in September 2000 were turned away and a further 10 per cent withdrew their applications.

All “Asian” groups (except the small number classified as “Chinese”) also struggle to get on to PGCE courses. Students in the “black Other” category, which includes those not classified as “black African” or “black Caribbean”, also have a low acceptance rate.

Of course, these figures - the latest that are available - do not reveal the full picture. Ethnic categorisation remains problematic and not all applicants are willing to record their ethnic origin. It is also true that some ethnic-minority trainee teachers are being recruited via the undergraduate or employment-based training routes, although such data are not publicly available.

Furthermore, the teacher-vacancy crisis in English schools has led to an increase in the number of ethnic-minority teachers recruited from overseas countries. However, this latter group of teachers is predominantly temporary and will not help schools to increase the number of ethnic-minority senior staff in the longer term.

Finally, since in Inner London, for instance, only 40 per cent of pupils are now classified as “white” and approaching 50 per cent of primary pupils there are classified as having English as an “additional” rather than “first” language, the recruitment of more ethnic-minority teachers remains crucially important.

John Howson is managing director of Education Data Surveys. Email: john.howson@lineone.net