Nearly a third of teachers have experienced prejudice-related bullying during their teaching careers, yet in the majority of cases schools  and employers are failing to take action on incidents of discrimination, a Conference  organised by the NASUWT, the fastest growing teachers’ union in Scotland, has heard.

Teachers at the NASUWT Scotland Equalities Conference, which has been held today (Saturday) in Edinburgh said that more needs to be done to address discrimination and prejudice within schools.

A real-time electronic poll of teachers attending the Conference found that:

• nearly a third (29%) said they have experienced bullying and  21% verbal abuse during their teaching career on the basis of a protected characteristic, such as gender, race or sexual orientation;
• 60% of those who reported an issue of discrimination to their school or local authority said no action was taken;
• 92% said they believe sectarianism continues to be a problem in their school or in the Scottish education system;
• 17% said they had experienced discrimination in accessing employment;
• only a quarter (25%) said their local authorities’ policies on equalities had been made easily accessible to them;
• less than one in five (18%) had been able to undertake equality awareness training in their local authority or school in the last two years;
• only 4% said less visible disabilities are taken seriously by their employer;
• only 13% said their school has a policy or offers training in supporting LGBT equality;
• nearly a third (29%) said that reports of racism not being taken seriously by senior managements is the biggest issue facing black and minority ethnic teachers in schools.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, who addressed the Conference, said:

“The findings of today’s real-time poll mirror the results of the annual survey the NASUWT carried out in March 2016 of almost 1,000 teachers in Scotland.

“There is a widespread failure to take seriously discrimination and prejudice-related bullying and abuse.

“The experiences shared by teachers at today’s Conference were deeply disturbing, specifically the extent of racial prejudice and abuse.

“Where policies exist they are often ignored by employers and managers.

“Any training employers provide on equality issues, in the main, is nothing more than an online tick-box exercise.

“Most disturbing was the common story that where incidents were reported no action was taken.

“When a teacher who has been subject to racist abuse is told that there are varying levels of racism and the incident she experienced is not severe enough, when repeated racist and homophobic comments are dismissed as banter and when teachers are being told the abuse they are facing is part of the job or it is their fault, then the extent of the problem which needs to be addressed is clear.

“Frameworks, policies and plans from Government and employers are meaningless unless there is a robust system in place at national and local level to ensure discrimination is being tackled systematically and robustly.

“Schools have a vital role to play in promoting social cohesion and the development of safe, inclusive and tolerant communities.

“A whole school approach to tackling inequality and discrimination is critical. Focusing policies on equality for pupils whilst perpetuating and ignoring inequality and discrimination faced by teachers is simply not acceptable.”