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Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme: Stakeholder Network Group

Overview

The Scottish Government’s Race Equality and Anti Racism in Education Programme (REAREP) was established in response to:

  • the significant amount of correspondence received by the Deputy First Minister as part of the Black Lives Matter movement and 
  • one of the recommendations made by the Covid-19 Ethnicity Expert Group, seeking to include the teaching of Black history in the curriculum

At the end of 2020, officials in Learning Directorate, Education Scotland and the Equality Unit undertook a series of engagement sessions with education and race equality stakeholders to gain a better understanding of what the challenges are in terms of race inequality and racism in schools.  At the beginning of 2021, the Deputy First Minister and the Minister for Older People and Equality met a number of stakeholders in order to listen to their suggestions for addressing race inequality in schools.  

The Programme’s governance consists of: 

  • a small Programme Board with representation from the SG’s Learning Directorate and Race Equality Team,  ADES and SQA, and
  • a larger Stakeholder Network Group 

Remit

The Race Equality in Education Stakeholder Network Group has been established with the central aims of:

  • identifying measures which will address race inequality which remains evident in schools
  • working with marginalised groups and individuals to ensure that young people from all minority ethnic backgrounds who experience race inequality, have their voices heard and can feed in to the decision making and implementation of this group’s objectives
  • advising on potential changes in practice and also on concrete short, medium and long term actions to support the desired outcome, which is that as a result of an anti-racist approach and a culture of racial literacy amongst all school staff and pupils, no minority ethnic child, young person, teacher or member of staff will experience race inequality in a school setting
  • the group will be an action and outcomes focussed one, examining the key drivers of systemic race inequality in schools, how barriers which still exist can be removed and how good practice can be built upon

The Group will bring their different viewpoints together with evidence to develop a set of actions which address race inequality in schools across 4 distinct areas:

  • curriculum reform
  • racism, racist incidents and bullying
  • diversity in the teaching profession and education workforce
  • School Leadership and Professional Learning

Related work 

There are a number of pre-existing work strands which tie in to the REAREP work. This includes, but is not limited to:  

The Integration of UNCRC in to Scots Law
The Race Equality Framework for Scotland 2016 to 2030
The Race Equality Action Plan 2017 to 2021 (The next iteration of the REAP is currently in development and will underpin measures or actions which emerge from the Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme).
Diversity in the teaching profession working group
The 2020-2021 Programme for Government

Members

  • Annette Foulcer, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
  • Matthew Sweeney, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
  • Maureen McKenna, Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES)
  • Peter McNaughton, Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES)
  • Samir Sharma, Quality Improvement Officer, Glasgow City Council
  • Michael Roach, Inverclyde Council
  • Victoria Smith, General Teaching Council (Scotland)
  • Selma Augestad, Education Institute of Scotland (EIS)
  • Nahid Aslam, NASUWT
  • Professor Emerita Rowena Arshad CBE FEIS, Former Head of Moray House School of Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES) 
  • Dr David Smith, ITE (University of Aberdeen), Scottish Council of Deans of Education
  • Amy Allard-Dunbar, Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS)
  • Daniella Faakor Damptey, Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP)
  • Rami Ousta, Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland (BEMIS)
  • Parveen Khan, Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO)
  • Carol Young, Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER)
  • Katie Ferguson, RespectME
  • Gary Christie, Scottish Refugee Council
  • Maureen Finn, Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP)
  • Khadija Mohammad, Scottish Association of Minority Ethnic Educators (SAMEE)
  • Lewis Hou, The Anti-Racist Educator
  • Asif Chishti, Secondary School teacher
  • Nuzhat Uthmani, Primary School Teacher and EIS BAME Network representative
  • Judith Mohammed, Headteacher, Oldmachar Academy, Aberdeen

Education Scotland

  • Lesley Whelan, Education Scotland
  • Jacqueline Nimmo, Education Scotland
  • Mélina Valdilièvre, Education Scotland

Scottish Government

  • David Roy, Scottish Government (Chair)
  • Judith Ballantine, Scottish Government
  • Siân Balfour, Scottish Government
  • Zarina Naseem, Scottish Government
  • Phil Alcock, Scottish Government
  • Aqeel Ahmed, Scottish Government
  • Pauline Hendry, Scottish Government (Secretariat)

Documents

Contact

pauline.hendry@gov.scot