Schools ‘ill-equipped’ to deal with rise in racism

SCHOOLS and colleges are ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with increasingly frequent incidents of racism, teachers have claimed.

Racist abuse appears common in second level schools, further education and third level colleges staffed by members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), based on the findings of a survey released yesterday.

But union leaders have warned the situation may worsen as schools are blocked from filling vacant posts in which teachers can promote inter-culturalism.