A group of siblings have penned an open letter to the Scottish Government calling for reform of the education system – to target racism in schools.
Florence Joseph, along with sisters Madeleine, 20, and Juliet, 17, and brother Reuben, 23, from Helensburgh, have written an open letter to the Scottish Government, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the cabinet secretary for education and skills, John Swinney.
A petition has also been set up by the siblings, who have Caribbean heritage, to back their letter – attracting over 11,000 signatures.
Florence, 25, said most of her experiences of racism in Scotland have ‘been from teachers’.
The family has been inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and wrote the letter titled ‘Reparation in Education: Addressing Race in Scottish Schools’.
It includes three key objectives which the four siblings are asking to be implemented across Scotland.
These include a curriculum for black excellence, which focuses on education of the social, historical and political context of BAME experiences.
Other objectives include the inclusion of material written by BAME creatives and academics, greater diversity in staff representation at all schools in Scotland and the compulsory completion of a racial awareness course for all trainee teachers – along with continuous, up-to-date training for already qualified teachers.
Florence, a nurse specialising in children’s oncology at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, was unable to attend last weekend’s rally at Glasgow Green but she has been inspired by the fallout from the
movement.
She said: “I remember one of my high school teachers made a point of saying this big story in class about how ‘when you go around the world there’s varying differences in skin colour, you have the black people who are poor’.
“And then she went on to say ‘you’ve got yellow Asian people’ and she made hand signals with her eyes, she did that in front of the full class and didn’t think twice about it.
“Mostly my poor experiences of racism in this country have actually been from teachers.”
The letter states: “We understand that these changes would require financial support from the Scottish Government in order to ensure effective implementation.
“We are also aware of the tangible, long-term economic impacts of Covid-19 and the restraints that this will inevitably place on government
spending.
“However, we believe that this investment is not only owed by the government, but it is long overdue.
“The Scottish Government has made incredible strides regarding inclusivity, especially as we are now the first country in the world to implement LGBTQIA+ compulsory learning in our curriculum.
“We encourage you to, again, lead by example and support BAME communities which make Scotland our home.”
Brendan O’Hara, MP for Argyll and Bute, has also received a copy of the open letter and gave his backing to efforts at tackling racism through education.
He said: “It is great to see young people playing their part in this important debate and coming up with practical, workable solutions for tackling racism in society.
“The open letter to the Scottish Government clearly sets out how this could be delivered and help Scotland move closer to becoming the open, inclusive and fair country we want to live in.”
