Make the reporting of racist incidents mandatory in schools

Racism in schools is something that needs to be seen and acknowledged before it is understood. Once data is collected to understand the scale and nature of the problem, only then can it be tackled effectively.

The 1999 Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence recommended schools should “record all racist incidents”. The reporting of racist incidents was mandatory for all schools until 2012, when the government issued guidance to schools saying they had no legal duty to report the figures. Since then, the number of schools reporting on racist incidents has dropped drastically.

By not reporting racist incidents, the government is hiding the true scale of the problem and schools are failing to meet basic safeguarding measures. It is only by tracking and measuring racial discrimination in our schools, can we begin to tackle and overcome the problem.