DELEGATES to the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference rallied behind a motion today to tackle race inequalities and protect black teachers and students in schools.

The union, which represents more than 400,000 teaching staff, stressed the time for “robust action” had come to tackle issues around the retention of black teachers and a rise in the racial bullying of black pupils in England.

The algorithm used in last year’s “assessment fiasco,” which advantaged children in private schools and therefore penalised black and disadvantaged students, highlighted the “unfairness built into current national education policy,” the NEU warned.