Racial abuse increasing significantly in UK schools: Report

Rasa - Schools across the United Kingdom have recorded a significant surge in number of racial abuse cases as calls increase for more protection for pupils and teachers from different religious and ethnic backgrounds.

News ID: 441840

Date: 02 December 2018 - 11:42

RNA - The Guardian newspaper said in a report published on its website on Saturday that around 5,000 cases of racial abuse had been seen in UK schools in 2017, an increase of about 10 percent compared to the previous year.

The report said those cases were the ones that led to an action against the perpetrators, including fixed or permanent exclusion. However, reports have suggested that there could have been many other incidents of racial abuse across UK schools that have gone unnoticed mainly because authorities, both in schools and law enforcement agencies, have been less inclined to address all of them. Experts believe there are other reasons too, including the fear in the victims to pursue the cases as it could ultimately leave them in more vulnerable situation and cause them to abandon the education.

According to Press TV, former British Prime Minister David Cameron removed a duty for school authorities to monitor and the incidence of racist bullying, with right campaigners accusing him and the next coalition government of deliberately “burying” the problem rather than trying to tackle it.

The Guardian report on the surge in racial abuse in schools also come days after a video emerged of an attack on a Syrian refugee by in a school in Huddersfield, in northern England. The attack on the 15-year-old Jamal, who has reportedly been subject to repeated abuses in the school over the past months, sparked huge outrage across Britain.

Jamal’s parents later said that their children had been abused several times but authorities in schools always tried to protect the attackers. They said if it was not for the media pressure, they could never be able to raise their voices and their children could have quit the school for good.

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