Minister: Schools must not teach children that white privilege is a fact
SCHOOLS must not teach children about ‘white privilege’ as if it were fact, the Education Secretary has said.
Nadhim Zahawi warned it is a ‘contested view’ and teachers who promote it risk pushing ‘partisan’ politics on to pupils.
His intervention comes in response to a report by the Commons education committee, which said teaching white privilege could be against the Equality Act.
White privilege is understood as the everyday benefit white people enjoy over other ethnicities due to systemic racism. But the committee said telling children they are different because of their race is unlawful.
In a Department for Education response last night, Mr Zahawi said teachers must focus instead on ‘respect for other people and for difference’.
He said: ‘Schools must not promote partisan political views.
‘Schools should not teach contested theories and opinions as fact, and this includes contested views about “white privilege”.’
He added that political issues on race should be taught ‘in a balanced and factual manner’. And he said schools have a ‘legal duty’ to maintain ‘political impartiality’ when covering ‘sensitive and complex issues’.
The committee’s report, published in June, was called ‘The forgotten: how white working-class pupils have been let down, and how to change it.’ It argued that white working class pupils would feel alienated by concepts of white privilege when they are the worstperforming group in the country. Tory committee chairman Rob Halfon said the term was ‘divisive’ and ‘pitted groups against each other’. He added it was ‘wrongheaded’ because it blames people purely based on skin colour.
The report also stated white working class pupils had been neglected by the education system for ‘decades’. They are one of the worst-performing groups at ages five, 16 and 18, in comparison to disadvantaged children from other ethnicities. Mr Halfon added: ‘Disadvantaged white children feel anything but privileged when it comes to education. ‘Privilege is the very opposite to what disadvantaged white children enjoy or benefit from in an education system which is now leaving far too many behind.’ Many teachers are in favour of teaching ‘white privilege’ as part of wider efforts to tackle racism in schools. Brighton and Hove councillors even said last year they would provide training to schools on the topic.
But critics say it is teaching children at a young age to feel resentful of each other based on skin colour, instead of encouraging them to be friends.
It comes after Mr Zahawi was caught up in a race row when a fellow Tory MP confused him with Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
James Gray admitted getting the two mixed up but said reports he had added ‘they all look the same to me’ were untrue.