Judging by the membership lists of the task forces to guide David Blunkett through the varying mazes - social, technological, vocational, moral, spiritual, cultural - it seems that there are very few black people invited to give advice.
This puzzles me because a great number of black people have made substantive contributions to education and social developmentt. For example, Jagdish Gundara, Chris Mullard, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, Peter Figueroa, Olivia Foster-Carter, Marina Forster, Joscelyn Barrow, Keith Waite, Guy Wooley, Agrey Burke, Jerry Davis, Carlton Duncan, Grace Nicholls, James Berry, Clare Holele, Peter D’Sena, Ansel Wong, David Dabydeen, Tamara Jakowbowski, Lola Young. .. I could go on and on.
Why have those responsible for the task forces chosen few black people? Maybe they are on the task forces as mere tokens, a practice which we as black people are all to familiar with. What we need is a black task force on children’s schooling in the English education system.
GEORGE FISHER (in personal capacity) Humanities Adviser The London borough of Haringey
