HL Deb 22 June 1999 vol 602 cc76-7WA
Lord Harris of Haringey

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the fact that 39.3 per cent. of part-time teachers in further education colleges in England in 1996–97 were non-white, compared with only 14.8 per cent. of full-time teachers, constitutes institutional racism. [HL2894]

Baroness Blackstone

The Further Education Funding Council collects and publishes information on staffing numbers in further education colleges. It is compulsory that full-time staff and some part-time staff indicate their ethnic origin, but voluntary for part-time staff on shorter contracts.

A substantial number of staff did not identify their ethnic origin, an omission which distorts the information in the published tables. For those staff identifying their ethnic origin, 6.0 per cent. of full-time staff and 6.8 per cent. of part-time staff identified themselves as non-white.

These figures are broadly similar to the proportion of non-whites in the population and do not, therefore, provide evidence of institutional racism.

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