I SUPPOSE it was inevitable that Trevor Phillips decided to get his new job as the head of the Commission for Racial Equailty off to a bang by attacking schools over the performance of black pupils (TES, January 24).
Are all teachers and all schools failing all their black students Mr Phillips, or only the ones in the state sector?
There is a compelling need to develop the debate on race, class, culture and schooling which are being carried forward in a serious and measured way but by his ill-considered outburst, Mr Phillips becomes the preposterous Chris Woodhead figure of race relations.
Until he is prepared to engage in serious dialogue with educationists and to use his office to pressure government into freeing schools to address pupils’ real needs, he deserves to be ignored and who then suffers from his posturing and petulance?
B Anderson
11a School Road
Moseley, Birmingham
TES reporters examine the potential impact on teachers’ wallets and school budgets of a new system for the capital and a nationwide 2.9 per cent increase
