Fighting for change: The Black Curriculum and its quest to educate young people on black history.
How a group of young black people are working to make lasting change within society, starting in our schools.
Last updated 29th Jun 2020
In the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, people around the world have been moved to make changes in the hope of ending racism. It's prompted thousands to take to the streets, to demand equality. For some, it's been an opportunity to educate others about systemic racism in our society. And for others it's been a moment to learn, reflect on and alter their own actions and behaviours.
One campagin group working hard to bring about lasting change within our schools is The Black Curriculum.
It was founded by young black people in 2019 with the intention of addressing the lack of black British history on the UK curriculum. Before Mr Floyd's tragic death, the campaign had around 1,000 followers on social media but as outrage to his murder has grown around the world - those numbers have steadily increased to over 120,000.
Elesha Williams is from the organisation: "We feel like the education system in the UK has failed young poeple. There's a big problem with race in the UK and we believe that edcation is a fundamental route of that. Black students especailly suffer from a lack of identity and belonging from not seeing themselves accurately reprsented in the curriculum, they're either in positions of slavery or they're totally absent from it.
"Black students really shouldn't be relegated to one month of the year - black British history is as much a part of British history as anything else that we learn about. This campaign was started to address these problems and to begin to rectify them through curriculum reform. We're calling for a more accurate representation of the multi-ethnic britain that we live in today."
The Black Curriculum sent an open letter to the education secretary last month demanding a more inclusive national curriculum which would see black history become a mandatory element of learning from the age of 8 through to A-level.
On 23rd June, the day after Windrush Day - the government rejected those calls claiming that the curriculum is already "broad, blananced and flexible" and gives schools the option to teach as much or as little of the subject as they see appropriate.
Eleanor Brown is Head of History at a high school in Lancashire and has told us this problematic: "If the subject isn't a priority for a department or it's not an area of specialism - it simply won't get picked up upon. This is a massive problem because what you're ending up doing is leading to a level of ignorance within the general public because they don't know about the history of Britain or how we came to be.
"Kids tend to be incredibly surprised by what happened and the inhumane manner that we behaved. If you don't know about this, it produces a sense of entitlement. People still to this day tell pupils of mine to go home, when they're third generation, or even longer, within Britain. That ignorance is definintely led from a lack of education."
We're throwing our support behind The Black Curriculum to bring about change for future generations and you'll hear news reports on air over the next few months as we learn more about how the campaign could shape a better future.