What do schools have to do about the law?
The aim of the legislation is to make the promotion of race equality part and parcel to what education authorities and schools do, such that it becomes embedded in day-to-day school life. This includes developing policies, delivering the curriculum, pastoral care and school management.
It is the responsibility of education authorities to develop the race equality policy but schools have responsibility for putting it into practice.
It should be possible to meet the duty within existing policy arrangements, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
For example, the policy might form part of a wider equal opportunities or diversity policy, but you should still have a clearly marked subsection that identifies practical activity, progress and ultimate impact in specific relation to race equality.
The race equality policy should be a written statement of responsibilities and commitments with an action plan for putting the policy into practice. A good policy would:
be part of a school’s development plan
give details of how the school will put the policy into practice and assess how effective it is
clearly define roles and responsibilities so that people know what is expected of them
explain clearly what the school will do if the policy is not followed.
Additionally, education authorities must ensure that schools under their management:
assess the impact of their policies on pupils, staff and parents from different racial groups
assess whether their policies have or could have an adverse impact on attainment levels of pupils from different racial groups
monitor the impact of their policies on pupils, parents and staff from different racial groups.
This approach to race equality is complemented by legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament. Standards in Scotland’s Schools (2000) introduced annual statements of improvement objectives which have to include:
'…an account of the ways in which they will, in providing school education, encourage equal opportunities and in particular the observance of the equal opportunity requirements.'