Tigers belong in the wild

Time was when it would have been considered out of the question for any government, Labour or Conservative, to get black people to act as apologists for British racism. Recently, however, a number of willing candidates have emerged who are boldly affirming that the racism black people experience does not exist, and that what we experience as racism is due to our own failings.

They include Dr Tony Sewell, who led the government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities; Calvin Robinson of the Policy Exchange; and Katherine Birbalsingh, dubbed the ‘tigress head teacher’, head of the Michaela Community School in Brent, north London, and the government’s new social mobility tsar.

Birbalsingh has been described variously in the press as “Britain’s strictest head teacher”, “the ‘no excuses’ head teacher”, “Britain’s toughest tiger headmistress”; and her school has been called “notoriously uncompromising”. She maintains that “being strict just means keeping your standards high”, and she is reported as saying:

“Handing out detentions for seemingly small transgressions – such as turning up to class without a pen – would benefit children in the long run. If teachers let these things slide, disadvantaged children would fall further and further behind. But if children can be taught good habits – such as turning up on time, dressing smartly and remembering the right equipment – they will grow into successful adults.”

Her role as social mobility tsar is to help “level up” the country’s disadvantaged communities, a process that has education for social mobility at its core.

As far as Birbalsingh is concerned, social mobility is achieved through quality schooling outcomes and “keeping your standards high”. To this end, schools should “stick to teaching children maths and English” and “return to the traditional approach to teaching” that she has pioneered.

It would appear that as far as Birbalsingh is concerned, racism plays no part in the quality of schooling outcomes for black children. Writing in the Spectator in August 2020 in an article titled ‘Britain Isn’t Racist’, and against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, she noted:

“In the last few months, we’ve been told that Britain is a fundamentally racist society, that the colour of your skin holds you back in life if you’re not white, that history, education and, in fact, all white people, are inherently racist. Too often, we hear this from the media, from universities, and from many areas of the establishment. I worry that this trend is deeply damaging.”

SEXUAL MOLESTATION

More recently, she tweeted that if a child complained that a teacher is racist, you should back the teacher, because to do otherwise would be to do the child a disservice. This suggests that whatever the child might have experienced and whatever impact that might have had on the child, the school’s default position must be to dismiss the child’s concerns and ‘back the teacher’. One wonders whether Birbalsingh would dismiss a child similarly if the child’s complaint were to do with sexual molestation or a similar safeguarding issue.

She is against the teaching of ‘white privilege’ in schools, and she appears to subscribe to the flawed doctrine that sees ‘privilege’ as having to do with social class, socio-economic status, the absence of deprivation, equal opportunity, and equal access to life’s choices.

But, it is not so surprising that the government would want to appoint ‘Britain’s toughest tiger headmistress’ to help level up the country’s disadvantaged communities.

In 2020, former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced a three-year funding programme to improve pupil behaviour. “The programme pairs schools and MATs with exemplary behaviour practices, called ‘lead schools’, or MATs, with partner schools or MATs who want and need to improve pupil behaviour:” Small wonder that academies and multi-academy trusts (MATs) exclude more students than all other schools put together.

Since the 1970s, the highest proportion of excluded students has been of black Caribbean and latterly black African/white European background. The likes of Tony Sewell and Katherine Birbalsingh would have us believe that this has nothing whatsoever to do with systemic racism, despite the fact that black and mixed-heritage students are significantly over-represented in Pupil Referral Units and Alternative Provision generally.

But students go to school not just to learn how to think, hopefully, or to learn how to reproduce facts to pass tests, but also to learn how to behave. They are in the process of learning social skills and especially self-management skills, including managing their behaviour, managing anger, knowing what behaviours are appropriate in which settings, etc. In other words, learning the skills that make us all fit for living in civil society with a degree of civility and human decency. This necessitates unlearning certain behaviours, both at home and at school, wherever and however they may have learnt those in the first place.

But, irrespective of their disposition, ALL are required by law to attend school; and all are entitled to have their right to an education respected and safeguarded.

Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that all rights apply to all children, regardless of what they have done. This is reinforced by Article 28, which states that all children have a right to an education.

Children’s right to education cannot be forfeited on account of their poor behaviour, or their non-compliance with codes of conduct or policies relating to school uniform. Part of their educational entitlement is guidance and support in embracing their personal responsibility to act in a manner that helps to make the school a place where all can feel valued, and can learn and teach in safety and comfort.

As such, schools owe it to parents and to society to ensure that ‘no child is left behind’, however complex their needs. You don’t do that by handing out behaviour points like confetti and running a regime based on punishment for the most minor infractions, rising to fixed term and, ultimately, permanent exclusion.

Tigers belong in the wild.

It is a very warped society that would appoint the toughest, no-excuses/zero-tolerance tigress of a head teacher to lead a national social mobility programme. But then, from ‘zero tolerance’ to police in corridors, the war on youth and the school-to-prison pipeline begin in schools.

Professor Augustine John is visiting professor, Office of Teaching & Learning, at Coventry University ,and honorary fellow and associate professor at the UCL Institute of Education, University of London.