50th anniversary respects paid to teacher who broke down race barriers
was made 50 years ago today when Saroj Lal, dressed in her striking sari, introduced herself to a class of Primary 3 pupils at Edinburgh’s South Morningside Primary School.
As the state school’s first ever BAME teacher and one of the first Asian teachers in Scotland, Mrs Lal had a seismic impact in breaking down race barriers.
Born in India, Lal, who died aged 82 in March this year, moved to Edinburgh with her young family in the 1960s and would go on to spend decades fighting prominently for equal opportunities, first as director of the Lothian Racial Equality Council and later working closely with the Home Office, the NHS and the police.
Lal has now been recognised in the Scottish Parliament, campaign groups she worked alongside and attracted touching tributes from the likes of Blue Peter’s Valerie Singleton and a large contingent of former pupils who recall her fondly.
Today a ceremony will take place at South Morningside Primary School to pay homage to a woman who helped enlighten young minds with her messages of multiculturalism and equality.
Lothians MSP Sarah Boyack said: “She broke down barriers in our education system and will remain one of Scotland’s pioneering race relations activists, feminists and equality campaigners.”
South Morningside alumnus Kathryn Wright, now headteacher at Dean Park Primary, recalls being in Lal’s class.
She said: “Every day I’d look forward to seeing what sari she’d be wearing – she seemed so impossibly glamorous.”
Lal’s son Vineet recent-history ly approached Singleton, to inform the BBC presenter of how a Blue Peter trip to Kenya in 1971 had inspired his mother to work in race relations.
Singleton said: “It is so rewarding to know that my time on Blue Peter was such an inspiration to Saroj Lal, who passed on the values of the programme to her pupils at South Morningside Primary School.
“Clearly these values were very close to her own.”