Charter of Rights

Champa Patel, National Black Youth Forum

Global Teacher Spring 2001

I belong to an organisation called the National Black Youth Forum (NBYF), which is a body made up of young people, of Asian and African heritage aged between 13 and 25. The Forum was formulated both in reaction to and as a response to prevailing standards of inequalities of opportunity and choice for black children and young people across such diverse platforms as education, employment, health and the media. The NBYF spent a year, consulting with over 2000 black children and young people, putting together a bill of rights that we call the Black Youth Charter, The Charter addresses the various insidious ways in which institutionalised racism manifests itself. The Charter was published in 2000 and we are now campaigning on some of the issues we have identified, one of them being education.

As a young woman of Asian origin, I could be described as a 'success' story. I have both a BA and MA in my chosen areas of research. However when I am asked about what I remember from my school days I always recall the uproar that ensued when I did my A levels.

I attended an urban inner city school characterised by a large Asian and African Caribbean student population where white students were in a minority. For my A-Level English class there was just one white pupil and the rest of us were all Asian or African Caribbean. On an almost daily basis, we were told that it was pointless to teach us, that we would not amount to anything and that we were just a waste of time. We covered barely any of the required set texts in the first year and we decided to take on the texts ourselves. Through a combination of note sharing and positive encouragement from another teacher in another department we all passed our A Levels. Too few of my classmates passed with the marks they would have been able to gain if they had been taught within a supportive and encouraging environment that fostered their abilities and focused on their weaknesses. Our subsequent vocal complaints managed to get half of the department suspended. At the time, we were jubilant but in retrospect, it all seems such a hollow victory. What had we gained? Surrounded by teachers who were disinterested in our progress many of my classmates became disillusioned with the educational process and decided not to pursue further education. Stories such as mine resonate throughout Britain and are, unfortunately, not isolated phenomena.

Analyses, from the Swan Report in 1985 to the recent OFSTED report on inequalities students' face due to race, class or gender, have focused on the unconscious racism of educational institutions and teachers. This debilitating lack of encouragement is just one facet of inequalities in education that the National Black Youth Forum addresses.

In the Black Youth Charter, the section dealing with Education defines the rights we have as black students. Point 2 states that

"We have the right to be safe in any learning environment, inside or outside the educational institution."

To be safe within any learning environment and not be the target of racist abuse from our contemporaries or teachers. We do not only mean the obvious displays of racism such as name-calling or physical abuse but the myriad ways in which cultural stereotypes can affect how a teacher addresses a child or what they presuppose their abilities to be.

In this respect, we believe that Point 6 in our Charter should be put into action:
"Black young people have the right to be educated by teachers who are not racist. We want our teachers to receive ongoing race awareness training, so that this awareness be demonstrated in their teaching practice."

There should be an ongoing dialogue and training for teachers within which they can counter their own assumptions, regarding race and educational ability, predicated on racial stereotypes. By opening up dialogues about the prejudices teachers can bring to the job would be one of the first steps towards an educational system that promotes the elimination of racism in both teaching standards and the environment within which learning is conducted.

We also believe that black children should be consulted on the quality of teaching they receive and be able to articulate the pressures or discriminations they face.

We hope that educational institutions and its practitioners will work in partnership with the National Black Youth Forum to implement the rights and recommendations that are set out in the Black Youth Charter.

Associated articles:

Action for Inclusive Education

A view from the South

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