Lewis Iwu, director of the Fair Education Alliance, which seeks to tackle education inequality and increase social mobility across the UK, says “the truth is, we’re making slow progress”. Speaking following the Alliance’s state of the nation report last week, he adds, “we’re not on track to close the country’s education gap [between the most and least disadvantaged children] by 2022”.
Iwu, 29, who went to a comprehensive in east London and was the first black president of the Oxford University Student Union, wants politicians, policymakers and business leaders to give children the ability to succeed irrespective of their background or parental income. “The mark of a society which is truly fair and equal is where opportunity is available to all,” he says.
The alliance of 55 organisations, including universities, companies and NGOs, is calling on schools to narrow the attainment gap in primary school numeracy and literacy, GCSE completions, and to support high aspirations in order to improve the education of pupils from poorer households or black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. The report also wants more action to improve the resilience and wellbeing of young people, especially in poorer communities and calls on employers to widen their recruitment policies to achieve greater diversity at senior levels. But Iwu is not in favour of quotas, calling instead for a dialogue between businesses and BME communities, starting during early years and at primary school.
He believes that creating a diverse workforce means addressing the inextricably linked issues of socio-economic mobility and minority representation. “So you can’t divorce the question of the education gap or social mobility from the question of race,” he says. “I sometimes go to companies, and I look around and the only BME faces you see are the people who let you in the door.”
Iwu had a deep-rooted self-belief and determination to overcome society’s obstacles from an early age, something he attributes primarily to his Nigerian parents. “They came here with very little, and education transformed the lives of my family”, says Iwu, one of three brothers. His parents moved to the UK in the 1960s. His father got a master’s degree, ran his own shop and now works for Royal Mail, and his mother trained as a nurse, becoming a senior staff nurse before retirement. It is clear that their influence and continual support play an important role in their son’s success. Other pivotal figures were his teachers from nursery onwards, he says.
The most instrumental was his headteacher at St Bonaventure’s, Sir Michael Wilshaw, now chief inspector of schools in England. “Sir Michael really did help me work out what I wanted to do; he was very good at involving my parents in that decision as well. Quite frankly, when you’re a young black male from Newham, and you’re told about all these opportunities in front of you aged 15, you’re a bit sceptical, and I think he really helped not just me, but a lot of my peers at school believe in ourselves,” he says.
But it was the school debating club set up by Wilshaw that Iwu says transformed his life: “I turned up to school and I’d do the work but I was a bit disengaged and a bit restless. I knew I had lots of energy and I knew I liked talking. So initially I got put in debating club and I did it but I was terrible. I got entered for a competition and did really badly, but given that it was such a useful way for me to channel all that excess energy into something constructive, it was something I became good at.” From that shaky start, Iwu has never looked back. He debated in national competitions and eventually won the World Universities Debating Championships. He remembers his first experiences of success with his debating partner at school, “Will was from a very similar background. We were an unlikely couple; I was the scrawny little black kid, he was the huge, boisterous white kid from the north, and we ended up debating. And after a year, we won the national schools tournament and from there went on to represent and captain England.”
Will also studied at Oxford and is now a successful lawyer in the City. Iwu believes that debating gave them both the confidence, intellectual stimulation and the networks to overcome obstacles to social mobility. “You benefit from associating yourself with a wide variety of people. It helps you open your eyes and raise your aspirations. You say, ‘Well, if they can do it, then I can do it as well’”, he says.
After university, Iwu worked with Margaret McCabe to help set up Debate Mate, which teaches debating in more than 240 state schools in some of the UK’s most deprived areas, and he has taught young people in over 15 countries. He even finds time to coach the England national schools debating team.
Iwu trained as a corporate lawyer, but public service rather than a high-paid City job was his calling. His parents were very active in their community, as part of a Nigerian diaspora-based organisation that met regularly, created social networks and established their own welfare systems. “I was taken to these meetings that would happen every week for as long as I can remember, since I was a baby. And so you sit there week after week and you see a community discuss a shared problem, fundraise for a hospital back home, help support someone who suffers from bereavement, give people advice on getting jobs, and you understand the importance of community. That for me was a massive influence. And that’s politics, right? People coming together to try to tackle shared problems.”
So Iwu is comfortable in his current role, managing a coalition that harnesses some 40 different voices. As the only minority ethnic person on the Fair Education Alliance executive team, he is aware that diversity is just as much of a problem in the third sector as it is in other walks of life. “I’m used to being around lots of interesting people but am usually one of few BME people around,” he says. He wants charities and voluntary organisations, which do so much to promote a fairer society, to “ensure that their internal and recruitment practices allow young black people not only access into these charities and organisations, but also progression”.
Iwu is a longstanding Labour member and doesn’t rule out going into politics. He wrote speeches for Yvette Cooper when he was seconded from a large public relations firm. He has even been tipped as a future Labour leader. But for now, his focus is on creating a cross-party consensus on making equality of opportunity a reality for all.
He cites Martin Luther King and Barack Obama as role models. And it’s not difficult to see why, with his ability to bring people together across race and class divides. Closer to home he finds inspiration from black public figures such as MPs David Lammy and Diane Abbott, and Vivian Hunt, a director at the consultancy McKinsey.
He says: “I never ran for the Oxford Student Union as someone who wanted to be the first black president; I ran as someone who thought they would be good, who happened to be black.”
In the upcoming London mayoral elections, he is backing Sadiq Khan (in his personal capacity), and he believes it would mean a great deal for social mobility to see the son of a bus driver and someone from an ethnic minority background triumph.
Iwu is now a role model himself for BME young people. So what advice would he give to those feeling overwhelmed by the obstacles ahead? “One is not to be afraid of challenges or failure and two is to recognise that every single person has a unique, inherent worth. Someone gave me those useful pieces of advice, and I think they’re worth remembering for everyone.”
Curriculum vitae
Age 29.
Lives East London.
Education St Bonaventure’s comprehensive school, Newham; New College, Oxford: philosophy, politics and economics BA.
Career 2015-present: director, Fair Education Alliance; 2015-present and 2011-13: head coach, England national debating team; 2013-15: account director, Brunswick Group; 2011-13: trainee, Slaughter and May international law firm; 2008-09: president, Oxford University student union.
Interests Current affairs, coaching debating, football, 80s soul and 90s R&B.
