FOI requests find thousands of racist incidents reported in Scottish schools

Date: 10th August 2016
Category: Non-discrimination

Freedom of information requests to councils found almost 2,000 incidents of racism in primary schools and 1,000 more in secondary schools since 2011.

Figures were provided by 26 out of 32 local authorities, although some large councils including Glasgow City Council and Aberdeen City Council were not among them. Some councils did not supply data for every year, meaning the total figure will be higher. The Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were made by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

UN Concluding Observations

In June 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, following a UK State Party examination, expressed concerns that many children in certain groups, including children in ethnic minorities as well as migrant, asylum-seeking and refugee children continue to experience discrimination and social stigmatisation throughout the UK including Scotland (Section 20c).

• More information regarding the FOI requests can be found via a BBC article here.