Thousands of racist incidents have been reported in schools, including verbal and physical attacks, new figures show.
Between 2007 and 2011, 87,915 racist incidents were recorded by 90 local authorities, according to statistics obtained by the BBC Asian Network.
In the past, schools were told they must monitor and report racist incidents to their local authority. This could include “any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person”, a definition set in the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
In 2010, the Department for Children, Schools and Families proposed the introduction of systems to record all incidents of bullying between pupils and abuse against staff.
But Labour lost the general election later that year and the proposals were never enacted. Instead, the coalition government has issued advice saying that staff should develop a consistent approach to monitoring bullying incidents.
There is no longer a statutory requirement to record and report incidents, but many schools still do this, regarding it as good practice.
Racist incidents reported
2007-08: 22,285
2008-09: 22,663
2009-10: 23,971
2010-11: 18,996*
*The duty to report racist incidents ended in 2009-2010
(Source: BBC)
Pupil Exclusions for racist behaviour in 2009-10
Number of permanent exclusions for racist behaviour in all schools: 20
As a percentage of all exclusions: 0.3%
Number of suspensions for racist behaviour
As a percentage of all the sector’s suspensions (Source: Department for Education 2011)
Primary: 320 - 0.8%
Secondary: 3,410 - 1.2%
Special: 390 - 2.6%.
