More action needed to ensure diversity in teaching - The Yorkshire Post says

A report today from the

National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) finds that all ethnic groups apart from white teachers are under-represented at all stages of a teaching career, apart from during teacher training.

Applicants from Asian, black and other ethnic backgrounds are in fact over-represented when they apply to become teachers, something that suggests high levels of interest in joining the profession from these communities.

However, acceptance rates for applicants from these ethnic backgrounds are generally lower than for applicants from white ethnic backgrounds, resulting in a situation where pupils in English state schools have a high probability of never being taught by a teacher who is not white.

Indeed the report finds that six in 10 English state schools have an all-white teaching staff, while in primary schools nearly seven in 10 have only white teachers.

Teaching, like all professions, has a duty to reflect the communities it interacts with. While the interest from nonwhite applicants is so demonstrably there, it is incumbent on the profession to do more to bring these applicants along.

As Sufian Sadiq so eloquently says, addressing racial disparities within teaching is not only a moral imperative, but increasingly necessary to tackle teacher supply problems, and ensure every child has a qualified teacher standing before them.