By Emily Cooper
Published: 10:46 BST, 7 May 2024 | Updated: 12:45 BST, 7 May 2024
More than half of British primary schools (55 per cent) have no ethnic minority teaching staff and 30 per cent do not have male teachers in the classroom, according to research published today.
The study from the University of Warwick found that a quarter of British schools only had white female teachers to act as role models for pupils.
Joshua Fullard, an assistant professor at Warwick Business School, said: ‘Diversity in the classroom matters. We know ethnic minority students and young boys are missing out by not having teachers that represent them.’
While the new research suggested that the proportion of schools with no diversity among staff has fallen since 2010, it also warned that the rate of change has slowed in recent years.
The professor, whose research focuses on teacher labour markets, said: ‘This data shows the highly limited progress being made on diversity in the classroom, with slow progress in achieving a representative pool of teachers.’
More than half of British primary schools (55 per cent) have no ethnic minority teachers and 30 per cent had no male teachers last year
Following the study from the University of Warwick, Joshua Fullard, an assistant professor at Warwick Business School, said: ‘Diversity in the classroom matters (Stock Image)
Professor Fullard added that the lack of diversity among teaching staff ‘will worsen existing gaps in attainment and inequality in adulthood’.
The new report was based on school workforce data obtained through a series of freedom of information requests.
It suggested that ethnic and gender diversity is even lower among leadership roles in schools.
Almost nine in ten schools (87.8 per cent) did not have a senior leader from an ethnic minority background last year,
And nearly half of British schools (46.5 per cent) did not have a male senior leadership team member.
The National Foundation for Educational Research has already called on the government to launch an action plan to improve the diversity of teaching staff, warning that ethnic minority teachers face an ‘invisible glass ceiling’.
The harrowing report from the University of Warwick also pointed to the lack of male teachers in British primary schools compared to senior schools.
Around 30 per cent of primary schools had no male teachers last year while only 0.2 per cent of secondary schools lacked a male classroom teacher.
The report said: ‘The proportion of male teachers is declining year on year… driven by a decline in the number of white male teachers.’
The drop in male teachers will impact recruitment targets for Stem subjects such as physics and maths where the pool of potential staff is predominantly male.
Last year the government recruited just 49 per cent of its target for trainee teachers in science, technology, engineering and maths.
The study from the University of Warwick (pictured) was based on government school workforce data obtained through a series of freedom of information requests (Stock Image)
The newly published study from the University of Warwick follows Department for Education research which found white-working class pupils to be rapidly falling behind their peers.
It said: ‘For the majority of trust and school leaders to whom we spoke, the group of pupils about which they were most concerned was white British working-class pupils.
‘This message was consistent across trusts and schools working in ethnically diverse areas, where white British pupils did not represent the majority of pupils, and for schools and trusts where the majority of the pupils were from white British working-class.’
The government report said these pupils were hit by a ‘combination of issues linked to deprivation, inter-generational poverty, attitudes to and experiences of education, and aspirations’.
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