RACIAL EQUALITY 2

Controversial plans for Britain's first school specifically for black children are to be launched after fresh concerns were raised that under-achievement among Afro-Caribbean teenagers is leading to a spate of drug-taking and gun crime. Church leaders and education specialists in Birmingham where two black teenage girls were shot on New Years Day will present the proposals for the 'black-led' school to the local education authority in the summer and expect a decision later in the year. It will be the first mainstream school for black children in the country and will be based on a number of Saturday schools set up in London by the black community to tackle under-achievement, particularly by black boys. Although schools are allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion, discriminating on the basis of race is illegal under the Race Relations Act.

Officials say that the school may be called a 'faith school' to get around the problem. "The African and Caribbean community is saying enough is enough," said Bishop Joe Aldred, vice-chair of the Council of Black Led Churches in Birmingham. "We cannot take any longer African-Caribbean kids coming out at the bottom of the education pool. They then become cannon fodder for the people who deal in drugs, for the drift into violence and then gun culture. We are not talking about a school with a sign on the door saying 'no whites'. What is being advanced, in view of the persistent under-performance of African-Caribbean kids, with 80% in some cases leaving school without qualifications, is radical, but we are not calling for the wholesale withdrawal from the system.

Aldred, who is also chairman of the Eastern Birmingham hospital trust, said that poor discipline in schools was creating problems for black children who were more used to strict rules at home. He also argued that it was wrong that schools where the majority of the pupils were black or Asian were still run in a 'white, English way'. It was important to have black head teachers and staff who could become role models for the children, he said. Lee Jasper, Ken Livingstone's adviser on race issues and leading ethnic minority rights campaigner, called Aldred last week to offer his support.

The paper on how to launch the school will be put together by the education sub-committee of the African Caribbean Community Forum, which was launched after the gangland shootings of two black teenagers, Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis, in Aston, Birmingham, at the New Year. The education authority, which will take the decision on whether to give the school the go-ahead, has signalled that it is open to ideas for improving the performance of black children.

One head teacher, Avtar Mangat, head teacher of Wilkes Green Junior School in Handsworth, has already attacked the plans. "When you start with one section of the community, other sections of the community can say, 'We want all-white schools'," he said. "The Sikhs will say they want all-Sikh schools and Muslims will say they want all-Muslim schools. I don't think that is a sound foundation for a healthy society."

Police officers in London who introduce an ethnic minority recruit to the Metropolitan force will be given a £350 payout. Under the Refer a Friend scheme, officers will be provided with the financial incentive to broaden the ethnic base of the 25,500-strong force. A police spokesman said, "The scheme will complement a number of initiatives which the Met are introducing to improve the representation of ethnic minorities and under-represented groups within the force."

At the moment, 5.3% of the Metropolitan Police workforce comes from ethnic minority backgrounds, a figure recruitment chiefs hope to push to 25.5% by 2009. The police spokesman says the reward will only be given if the recruit is successful and goes on to become a police officer. The £350 sum, he added, would be taxable.

Refer a Friend will be launched at the beginning of June 2003 and run by an independent firm called the Recruitment Communications Company. Assistant Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said, "We particularly welcome applications from women and ethnic minorities so that our service can better reflect the richly diverse communities that we serve."

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