Scottish teachers concerned over rise of hate crimes in schools

NASUWT say nearly half of their conference attendees hadn't heard of the programme to prevent young people becoming involved in terrorism Credit: PA

A national union for teachers in Scotland say over half of teachers are concerned over the rise of hate crimes in schools.

In the last two year, nearly two thirds of teachers say they believe the issue was not addressed satisfactorily.

Their concerns were heard at a conference hosted by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.

A real-time poll of teachers at the conference found the following:

  • Over half (52%) said they had experienced or witnessed hate crime in the last two years.

  • Almost two thirds (65%) of those said the issue was not resolved satisfactorily.

  • Over half (51%) said they had not been offered any equality awareness training in the last two years.

  • Only 21% said they had undertaken any such training.

  • 89% said they had not received any training on LGBTI issues in the last year.

  • Nearly half (47%) said they have had no training on the Prevent Strategy which is designed to prevent young people becoming involved in terrorism.

  • Over a third said they were not aware of the Prevent strategy.

  • 22% said their school has a strategy in place to ‘poverty proof’ the school day to ensure that children do not miss out on educational entitlements due to cost.