‘True extent of racism in schools’ revealed
MORE than half of children entering their teenage years in the UK have come across racism in schools, according to a new study.
Research by an anti-bullying campaign found that 32 per cent of children aged six to 15 had heard racist comments. The figure shot up to 52 per cent among 13 year-olds who were covered in a poll of more than 1,000 students.
The study, which was commissioned by youth charity The Diana Award and Nationwide Building Society, sought to assess the “true extent of racism and bullying in schools”, and “raise awareness among both pupils and their parents”. About three-quarters of the 1,000 parents surveyed considered racism to be a problem. Yet, researchers noted, four in 10 of them had not discussed the subject with their children recently.
Children in “more diverse areas” were “far more likely” to have come across racism, the study said.
London topped the list, with four of 10 students surveyed saying they had heard racist comments. On the other end, only one in seven children in Northern Ireland reported similar experiences.
Though there was no split of data based on the ethnicities of respondents, analysts believed students from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to hear racism.
The Diana Award said it had trained more than 33,000 anti-bullying ambassadors in 3,800 schools across the UK, and was committed to rooting out the social evil traumatising children.
The findings came amid rising educational uncertainties due to the pandemic, with 33 per cent of students “more worried that usual about returning to class”, the Guardian reported on Tuesday (22).