Diversity plea for teaching

THERE are just a “handful” of senior teachers in Scotland who come from an ethnic minority.

Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information requests show there were only two BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) headteachers and two deputies in the 19 councils which replied.

The party’s education spokesman Tavish Scott MSP has called for action to tackle the “continuing underrepresentation” in management roles.

He said: “There are in the region of 1,700 primary school head teachers and 350 secondary heads.

“The Scottish Government needs to understand why there aren’t then dozens of heads from a BAME background.”