PROMOTING POSITIVE ROLE MODELS TO YOUNG BLACK MALES IN EDUCATION
Background
Call for black role models scheme
The independent REACH report says that a lack of positive role models is having a detrimental effect on the aspirations on young Black men and says a national role modelling programme is needed to raise expectations and counter negative portrayals of Black men.
we need a massive teacher recruitment campaign
Lee Jasper in his conference speech to London Schools and the Black Child IV said:
It will take over fifty years to achieve an appropriate level of BME [black and minority ethnic] teachers within London’s schools. That is unacceptable. And that’s why we need a massive teacher recruitment campaign to bring about radical change.
Black Teachers in London
This report from September 2006, commissioned by the Mayor of London, has found that in some London boroughs 48-50 per cent of pupils are black, yet only 16-18 per cent of their teachers are of similar heritage.
Black youth in Britain "disinterested in politics"
In an editorial in May 2007, Black Britain draws parallels between disaffected youths in Britain and Jamaica and their lack of faith in the political system. It points out that a key cause of problems is their experience in the school system.
