More than half of primary schools (55 per cent) have no ethnic minority teachers, and there is “still a long way to go before the school workforce becomes representative of the pupils they teach”, according to research published today.
Almost half of all schools (46.1 percent) did not have a classroom teacher from an ethnic minority background in the academic year 2022-23, a report from the University of Warwick reveals.
And while researchers said that the proportion of schools with no diversity among staff has fallen since 2010 - when it was 55 per cent - they warned that the rate of change has slowed in recent years.
The new data comes after the National Foundation for Educational Research called on the government to launch an action plan to improve diversity within the teaching profession, after its research found that teachers of colour face an “invisible glass ceiling”.
Diversity in teaching
The University of Warwick research shows that the proportion of primary schools that did not have any ethnic minority teachers fell last year by 1 percentage point compared with 2022.
The researchers studied the changes in school workforce diversity between 2020 and 2023 based on government school workforce census data obtained via freedom of information requests.
Their report also warns that ethnic and gender diversity is even lower among senior roles in schools.
Almost nine in 10 schools (87.8 per cent) did not have a senior leader from an ethnic minority background last year.
And 46.5 per cent did not have a male senior leadership team member, the research shows.
Lack of male teachers in primary
The analysis of Department for Education data also reveals that 25 per cent of schools in the state-funded sector did not have a male classroom teacher.
And while researchers said this was down from almost one in three in 2010-11, figures show there has been an increase from 24.1 per cent in 2020-21.
Some 30 per cent of primary schools had no male teachers last year.
However, just 0.2 per cent of secondary schools lacked a male classroom teacher - the lowest proportion since 2010-11.
But the report says: “The proportion of male teachers is declining year on year...driven by a decline in the number of white male teachers.”
The drop in male teachers will particularly impact policymakers’ recruitment targets for subjects such as physics and maths because the “pool of potential subject-specific teachers [for these areas] is predominately male”.
Last year the government recruited just 49 per cent of its target for trainee teachers in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).
Impact on pupil attainment
Assistant professor Joshua Fullard, of Warwick Business School, said “We know ethnic minority students and young boys are missing out by not having teachers that represent them.”
He added that the lack of diversity among teaching staff “will worsen existing gaps in attainment and inequality in adulthood”.
“This data shows the highly limited progress being made on diversity in the classroom, with slow progress in achieving a representative pool of teachers.”
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