A leading teaching union has warned the prime minister that plans to reopen schools more widely next month fail to address that coronavirus poses a greater risk to black and minority ethnic pupils and staff.
Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT, called on Boris Johnson to ensure that the government’s approach to reopening state education will address the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on BAME people.
In his letter, the union leader requested urgent clarification from ministers that they would fulfil their legal duties under the Equality Act “to prevent further discriminatory impacts related to the transmission of the coronavirus”.
Early figures on the incidence of Covid-19 showed that 35% of almost 2,000 patients in intensive care units were black or from another minority ethnic background, despite BAME people making up only 14% of the population, according to the last census.
Roach said the higher transmission and mortality rates have provoked “a real sense of anxiety and fear among many BAME teachers”.
He also criticised the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) for its failure to address ethnicity in their recently published analysis of the risks posed by reopening schools.
“We can’t have a colourblind approach to the relaxation of the current rules to protect against this major public health crisis,” said Roach.
The leaders of Birmingham city council wrote to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, last week calling for “further guidance … for schools with large BAME communities on the implications of reopening”.
The council leader, Ian Ward, and the cabinet member for education, skills and culture, Jayne Francis, wrote: “The vast majority [of BAME parents] have stated that they will not be returning their children to school on 1 June [due to] their concerns on the disproportional impact on them as black parents if their child were to contract the virus and bring it home.”
Jackie, a black British teacher at a school in south-east London which is due to reopen next month, said she felt like she was in limbo due to the lack of government advice on the specific risks the virus posed to BAME pupils and staff.
“They have not addressed it properly,” she added. “We’re not being told what the risk is. Am I more vulnerable because of my age and ethnicity? I would like to have the evidence.”
Carol, a black British agency teacher in north London, has switched from primary to secondary school teaching partly due to concerns that she would be more at risk of contracting the virus in early years education where children need more hands-on assistance.
She said she had experienced symptoms of Covid-19, which she had been told were likely contracted from someone at school who was asymptomatic.
She was also concerned that her son, who is teaching vulnerable children during lockdown, was at risk. “Sometimes the children were spitting and the school didn’t even want him to wear a mask.”
The NASUWT said it was not satisfied that the government’s plans to test, track and trace the spread of Covid-19 were sufficiently robust to reopen schools. “It’s premature to be moving down that route when that infrastructure isn’t in place,” said Roach.
Sue Harte, the headteacher of John Stainer community primary school in Brockley, south-east London, who has decided not to reopen next month, said she had received no information about test, track and trace. “I honestly have got no sense of where the government are with that,” she said.
A Department for Education spokesman said schools should be “especially sensitive to the needs and worries of BAME staff, parents and pupils”, and consider if measures need to be put in place to address them.
