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

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.

The research found that 46% of teachers in community and comprehensive schools and 40% in schools run by vocational education committees (VECs) were aware of racist incidents in their school in the previous month. Almost 290 of the 442 people surveyed worked in second level schools, with the remainder in further education colleges and third level colleges.

Although the survey was carried out in the last school year, the TUI claims the situation is worsening as cutbacks have a disproportionate effect on minority ethnic students who are being taught in larger class groups, while schools have less pastoral care provision.

“Key middle management posts, such as year head and co-ordinators of certain programmes and activities, play a vital role in promoting inter-culturalism. But the block on appointments to these positions will have devastating effects going forward,” TUI assistant general secretary Annette Dolan said. “There are indications that the situation is worse in Dublin and increased incidents are also being reported in communities where job losses are prevalent.”

Among the reduced supports are a limit of two English language support teachers per school, despite high numbers of international students in many communities. The TUI survey found minority ethnic students make up at least one fifth of enrolments in more than a third of Dublin schools and a third of all students in further education colleges where the survey participants worked.

Ms Dolan said: “Learning English is not a luxury for these students. It is essential to their survival and the social cohesion of our communities.”

The TUI recommends that every school and college should have a formal procedure to be followed when a racist incident occurs, with a third of teachers surveyed reporting that no such procedure exists in their workplace.

More than a quarter of teachers had between four and 10 minority ethnic students in their classes, including one-in-10 with at least seven such students.

As well as resources to tackle racism, the TUI seeks greater availability of information in migrant families’ mother tongues about the Irish education system, extended English language support for students who need more than the two years currently allowed, and formal language support in further education.