Senedd Tories back leader’s attack on BAME teacher scheme

Emily Price 

The Welsh Conservatives have issued a group statement backing Andrew RT Davies’ recent attacks on a scheme aimed at recruiting BAME teachers.

Last, week the leader of the Senedd Conservatives hit out at the Welsh Government over an initiative which aims to increase the number of ethnic minority teachers in Wales.

The Ethnic Minority Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Incentive provides a £5,000 grant to eligible students who undertake a Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Mr Davies said that “prioritising ethnic minorities” was a “self-defeating distraction” that is “just plain wrong”.

‘Wrong direction’

Speaking to the Express, he said: “This is exactly the kind of DEI nonsense that drives outcomes in the wrong direction and is being roundly rejected across the Western world.

“Teacher shortages in Wales have precipitated in classroom sizes ballooning, a fifth of pupils leaving primary school functionally illiterate and Welsh schools tumbling down the global PISA rankings.

“Under Labour in Wales, we’ve lost 10% of our teachers in just over a decade. We need more teachers across the board to reverse this trend. Prioritising ethnic minorities is a self-defeating distraction.”

Other schemes

The Welsh Government currently offers several incentive schemes to attract and retain teachers from all backgrounds.

A £5,000 incentive is available to students who are studying to teach through the medium of Welsh or to teach Welsh as a subject.

There is also an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Priority Subject Incentive Scheme which provides a £15,000 grant to students who study on a postgraduate ITE programme in priority subjects.

We asked Mr Davies if he is opposed to these incentives too – or if he is only opposed to initiatives for BAME people.

The most senior Tory in Wales did not answer our question.

We asked all Welsh Conservative MSs individually if they agreed with their leader that incentives to increase the number of ethnic minority teachers should be scrapped.

A Welsh Conservative spokesperson responded saying: “The group does not support the Welsh Government giving some new teachers a £5,000 signing on bonus with no strings attached.”

Despite the statement being made on behalf of all Tory MSs, several told us they did not see it or sign it off.

At odds

Nation Cymru found that the Senedd record appears to show that Mr Davies’ stance on recruiting ethnic minority teachers is at odds with a BAME member of his own shadow cabinet.

In October 2023, the then Shadow Minister for Equalities Dr Altaf Hussain made passionate calls for a more diverse teaching workforce in Wales when quizzing the then Deputy Minister for Social Partnership Hannah Blythyn.

Dr Hussain is a former consultant orthopaedic surgeon. He represents the South Wales West region in the Senedd and is one of two Muslim shadow cabinet members.

Speaking in the Chamber on October 17 2023, Dr Hussain noted that only a “tiny percentage” of Wales’ teachers were from ethnic backgrounds.

He called on the deputy minister to focus on educating future generations, “not to hate differences, but to embrace them”.

Dr Hussain asked: “What discussions have you had with the Minister for education about the role that education plays in tackling hate?

“Have you discussed with him the need to employ a more diverse teaching workforce? As part of its anti-racist plan, the Welsh Government has made it mandatory to teach black, Asian and minority ethnic histories and experiences as part of Welsh history lessons, yet only a tiny percentage of teachers are from BAME backgrounds.

“Last year, only 0.2 per cent of newly qualified teachers were black, and just 44 out of nearly 1,500 newly qualified teachers had a BAME background. How can we possibly hope to put an end to race discrimination and, ultimately, hate crime, via education and celebration of diversity, if our teachers are not representative?”

‘Anti-racist’

Ms Blythyn explained that recruiting more teachers from ethnic minority communities, and incorporating anti-racist practice was part of the Welsh Government’s anti-racist Wales plan.

She told Dr Hussain this was being built on through the initial teacher education recruitment plan which provides “incentives for ethnic minority teacher training.”

Ms Blythyn added: “I’m sure that it’s something the member will be happy to work with us on in Wales to actually support and raise awareness and build on that in the future.”

We contacted Dr Hussain and asked whether he had retreated from his previous stance on the need for the Welsh Government to do more to attract ethnic minority teachers.

Nation Cymru also asked whether Mr Davies discussed with him his plans to publicly lambast an incentive for BAME people. Dr Hussain did not respond.