APRIL 2023 THE VOICE
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9
News Feature
the ‘subnormal’ schools
INVISIBLE SCARS: Black children across the UK were sent to subnormal schools in the 1960s and ‘70s after their parents were assured they would offer better support and learning opportunities. Bernard Coard exposed the system in a pamphlet titled How The West Indian Child is made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System, seen left. Above left and right, a young Maisie Barrett and Noel Gordon, whose experiences in subnormal schools shaped their adolescence and had a profound effect on their adult lives. While Ms Barrett is now an author after being diagnosed as dyslexic, Mr Gordon says he is still playing catch-up lives with stigma from his experience “In terms of education, we did nothing,” she recalls. “We played, we did PE, we traced letters and numbers, but we didn’t learn anything.” When she was 1 , she was transferred to a mainstream school after her mother got in touch with a Black social worker who, after evaluating her, concluded that young Maisie was intelligent and had been sent to the ESN school due to racism. But unable to read or write she struggled to make up the lost ground in her new school. “I was hearing the words like Maths, English, Geography and History for the very first time. I didn’t know what they were. “I also didn’t have any social skills so very few pupils could relate to me, so I just became a loner. “I left with zero self-confidence and a self-image that is poor to this very day.” It was only in her 0s that she was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Ms Barrett now has four university degrees and is also a published author. But her early education has had a lasting and painful impact on her children, who have been negatively affected by her own feelings of inadequacy.
many Caribbean parents were told special schools would offer better support and learning opportunities. This deception was exposed in 1971 by the Grenadan writer and teacher Bernard Coard, who
FOCUS
There needs to be change that stands in law, to say that if STIGMA consequences as adults as racist bullying is taking place in “The well as in childhood have been extreme. Their whole lives they school, or if a school is being have carried the stigma of being treated as incapable of being discriminatory, that school educated. needs to be investigated “The Government needs to
“When I was studying my children needed me,” she recalls. “I should have been working, earning good money and looking after them. But I needed to focus on my education so we lived in poverty for many years, and that poverty brings its own issues. “One of my sons stole some mobile phones to buy clothes. He later went to prison, and told the prison authorities he was sad. And what do they do to a Black child when they say that? They gave him medication that messed up his mind. So what they did to me, because of racism, has affected another generation.” During the 1960s and ‘70s,
wrote a pamphlet titled How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System. Mr Coard argued that ESN schools were being used as a “dumping ground” for Black children, and that teachers
were mistaking the trauma of immigration for a lack of intelligence. The pamphlet proved instrumental in shifting the opinion of Black parents, and was a key factor in the establishment
of Black-led Saturday schools which taught curriculum subjects alongside Black history and prepared students for employment. The 19 1 Education Act eventually abolished the term “educationally subnormal”. Francis Swaine, a solicitor at
Leigh Day who is leading the legal action, says it is as much about justice as it is about compensation. “The histories given by people, whose entire lives have been shaped by being wrongly labelled as educationally subnormal, are sad and traumatising,” she says.
face up to its shameful history and the harm systemically racist schooling caused to so many children and their families.” The group behind the campaign have also launched a petition in a bid to get the issue of racism in education debated in parliament. They argue that cases such
as that of Child Q, and the fact there are high numbers of Black children in Pupil Referral nits, mean that the problems they experienced are still manifesting themselves in today’s education system. Cheryl Phoenix, of the campaign group Black Child Agenda, said that changing the law is the only way to tackle an enduring problem. “Labelling Black students is still a problem,” says Ms Phoenix. “The blatant racism is there, I read these cases every day. “But what we don’t need is another inquiry. Change has to come from the top down. “There needs to be legislative change that stands in law, to say that if racist bullying is taking place in school, or if a school is being discriminatory, that school needs to be investigated.” For details of the petition visit petition.parliament.uk
