EDUCATION AND LAW

 

Author: Prince Foday

 

 

Legal Entitlements of Children and Young People

 

 The legal entitlements of children and young people are covered under the Children and Families Act 2014 (consisting of 0 to 25 SEND Code of Practice, EHCP Plans and SEND plans and the Local Offer), the Equality Act 2010 and Rights Convention [including the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (UNCRC) (1991)].

 

 The Children and Families Act 2014 covers childcare sector and childminder agencies, work and family life, adoption, and special educational needs (Crown, 2014). The act makes provision for childcare providers and schools to establish childminding agencies and can benefit from agencies that are available to support the childminders with training, business advice and request for Ofsted inspection for high-quality care delivery. Employees now have a flexible working condition under the act through the provision of shared parenting leave around the birth of their child (or arrangement in a situation of adoption). The act allows children to stay with foster families until they are 21. In the interest of the child, decision can now be arrived at whether a child can be arranged for adoption with their siblings or separately. After adoption, courts now have the right to decide whether a child should be in contact with a person (s) or not. Child adopters now have the same entitlement accorded to birth parents for leave and pay. The issue of racial origin, culture, linguistic background and religious believes are now given less significance. Children and young people with special educational needs under the act presently have a single plan for addressing their educational, health and social care needs that runs from birth to 25 years, and that the local authority has the responsibility of conducting an EHC needs assessment before making a decision  whether to issue an Educational, Health and Care (EHC) plan or not while the local health care provider have the legal obligation to organise a pertinent health care support.  The principle underlying 0-25 SEND Code of practice are that the views of children, young people and families should be taking into consideration; children, young people and families should be allowed to partake in decision making; parents should be collaborated with in the EHC plan; the needs of children and young people should be identified and that there should be high quality provision to satisfy the needs of children and young people; there should be elimination of barriers to learning and clear attention on inclusive practice; children and young people should be assisted in preparing for adulthood (Department of Education, 2014) .

 

The Equality Act 2010 clearly established that it is against the law to unfairly treat any person less favourably than another person due to personal traits like disability, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion, race, sex, and age (EOC, 2022). The Act covers the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and Equality Act 2006.

 

The rights convention is meant as a human rights instrument with a clear social development component. The convention endorses that all categories of disabilities must benefit from all human rights and underlying freedoms. The convention views persons with disabilities as people who can take decisions pertaining to their lives based on a free and notified consent coupled with being active members of society (United Nations, 2022). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child established the following fundamental rights that should be accessible to children: the right to development, survival, and life; the right to be protected against neglect, abuse and violence, the right to education that makes children to achieve their full potential; the right to be nurtured by or have relationship with parents; the right to express their views and be listened to.

 

 

Current Legislation and Codes of Practice to the Promotion of Equality and Valuing of Diversity

 

 The current legislation and codes of practice relevant to the promotion of equality and valuing of diversity are the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, the Special Needs and Disability Act 2001, Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and Equality Act 2006.

 

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 established new laws that led to an end to the numerous discriminations meted on disabled persons. The Act which and others integrated under the Equality Act of 2010 led to an enactment of new rights for disabled persons covering the right of access to transportation and accommodation, employment, education, and goods and services (First Practice Management, 2022).

 

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 gives the right to disable people to be treated fairly in terms of job adverts; makes provision for disabled people to question unfair treated in shops, restaurants, membership of social clubs and otherwise; demands fair treatment of local councillors that are disabled; people with mental illness to be accepted as disabled and treated fairly; people with cancer, multiple sclerosis, and cancer to be treated fairly (HM Government Office for Disability Issues, 2009).

 

The Special Education Needs and Disability Act 2001 gives the right to disabled persons not to be discriminated against education, training, and other services (example, a student that is dyslexic should not be discriminated against where he or she is applying for a course in Economics). The Act require providers of education to be fair in the delivery of learning and that consist of provision of materials in other formats ideal for the learner, the delivery of learning in alternative ways, the availability of interpreters or support workers, changing the physical features of the building appropriate for the disabled learner, changes to learning requirements or work placements, and changes to policies and practices (UK Centre for Legal Education, 2010).

 

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 came into effect in response to Stephen Lawrence inquiry and requires all public bodies to undertake services without racial discrimination. The Act extends the scope of the Race Relations Act of 1976 and goes beyond obvious bodies like government and police. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 provides extra power to the Commission of Racial Equality (CRE) to enforce specific duties and statutory guidelines. The Act is not only targeted at the public sector but influences the private sector in numerous ways (Freehills, 2001).

 

The Equality Act 2006 comprised of three main principles: to prohibit sex discrimination  in the delivery of public duties and  making public authorities to make it as a responsibility to promote equality of opportunity between women and men; to make discrimination unlawful in the discharge of public functions, belief, the management and disposal of premises, education, and the provision of facilities, goods and services; to create the commission for Equality and Human Rights (Personnel Today, 2006).

 

An Outline of the Ways in which Children and Young People Experience Prejudice and Discrimination

 

Prejudice arises when someone is being pre-emptive without a proof and discrimination is about being distinctive against a person or thing based on group or category. The simplified difference is that prejudice is about attitude and discrimination is centred around action.  Children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination through physical, sexism, racism, belief, and homophobic evidence.

 

Physically, children and young people will face prejudice and discrimination in school because of their body size, colour of their hair and disability. The mindset associated with people with disability makes it challenging for them to go to school and search for work in local activities (United Nations, 2022). It is a truism that children and young people with disability find it difficult to participate in social life and this is the case in both rural and urban sectors of societies. Children and young people with large body size and blonde hair are stigmatised and meant to face uncomfortable atmosphere with their peers.

 

Children and young people can sometimes experience sexist outlook among peers. There is that prejudice and discriminatory feeling that female sex are weak and helpless. Such is the attitude of many from childhood to adulthood. Dr Andrei Cimpian of the New York University said that “it might seem cute when a boy acts in chivalrous ways toward girls, or when girls pretend to be a Princess who’s waiting for a Prince to rescue her” (Chadwich, 2020). The statement from Dr Cimpian shows the kind of sexist prejudice and discrimination experienced by children and young people in society. More still a report from Girlguiding UK says that “nearly three-fourth of the girls aged 13 and over admitted to suffering sexual harassment; 75% of girls aged 11-21 say sexism affects their confidence and future aspirations” (Martinson, 2013).

 

Three to four years old children are known to demonstrate racial remarks. Some children and young people are meant to be called racist names and face racial threats.  NSPCC (2022) proposed that there are subtle comments meant to put a child and young person down and devalue their identity and such comments can be distressing to young people and influence their mental health. The statement form NPSS shows how the prejudice and discrimination through racism affects children and young people. Barnardo’s (2022) revealed from Government data that groups of children with the optimal rates of constant marginalisation in the school year 2018-2019 are White Gypsy and Roman pupils (0.39%),travellers of Irish Heritage Pupils (0.27%), Black Caribbeans Pupils (0.25%) and Mixed White and Black Caribbean children (0.24%). Barnardo’s further unveiled that students experience racism with classmates and the rate of racism in school have expanded over the last ten years. The information clearly shows how racism is ingrained in our society and that children and young people are meant to experience such ongoing prejudice and discrimination.

 

Religious intolerance is the by-product of the way human minds categorise people into groups and children and young people are meant to experience such prejudice and discrimination.   A survey by Beat Bullying charity depicts that one in five young people prefer to mix mainly with friends of the same religion and one in 20 stated that their families do not allow them having friends from other religious faith (Lipsett, 2008). The study justifies how children and young people are meant to experience religious prejudice and discrimination in their social life.

 

Children and young people experience homophobia and transphobia. Homophobia being the dislike for gay or homosexual people and transphobia is when someone dislike transgender people.  A study by Professor E J Renold of Cardiff university stated that primary school children are aiming each other with homophobic and anti-trans abuse and there has been a rise in young children reporting homophobic remarks (Fyfe, 2022). It is truly unfair on children to experience such prejudice and discrimination and an infringement of their choice of homosexuality or otherwise.

 

 

An Analysis of the Impact of Prejudice and Discrimination on Children and Young People     

 

 Human beings are social animals and having the ability to associate with their communities. Prejudice and discrimination are component part of our society, and such experience would have a negative impact on any person. It is inevitable that prejudice and discrimination can have an impact on one’s self-esteem and self-worth, breed mental health problems, build toxic social relationship, and develop difficulties in education.

 

Children and young people form their own personalities and experience which make them vulnerable to the effect of prejudice and discrimination. The self-esteem and self-worth of children and young people can be destroyed through the experience of prejudice and discrimination. For example, a girl who may be convinced about playing soccer in a predominantly boys’ team, may withdraw at some point in time. However, after trying some matches and realising that she plays better than some boys, she will begin to recognise her strength and dispel any discrimination against her. Children and young people can ignore the negative impact of prejudice and discrimination if the recognise their strength and build the confidence to challenge the experience. Daniel Goleman stated that the brain continues to hold a primitive endurance mode that may initiate reaction and responses that are unfitting, and to succeed, there is need to recognise those reactions and be able to cope with them (Bartlett et al., 2006).  Children and young people should imbibe the culture of emotional intelligence and that involves self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and strong social skills.

 

A great deal of prejudice and discrimination against a child and young people cannot only affect their self-esteem and self-worth but will have a ripple-effect on their mental health. Children and young people with weak self-esteem and self-worth are likely to be affected by anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Children experience of intense physical or sexual abuse and bullying can affect their mental health.  The emotional wellbeing of children and young people is simultaneously important with their physical health and that a sound mental health can assist them to cope with the challenges of prejudice and discrimination, and that children that are optimistic and resilience are more like to have good mental health (Mental Health Foundation, 2022). Mental Health Foundation further stated that the common mental health problem experienced by children are depression (feeling unhappy or hopeless or low self-esteem), self-harm (self-hurting), generalised anxiety disorder (becoming extremely worried), post-traumatic stress disorder (the product of physical or sexual abuse), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (being continuously overactive and having difficulty giving attention) and eating disorder (more common with girls than boys).  The disruption of a person’s self-esteem and self-worth can have a long-term impact on their mental health. Children and young people are prone to the negative views of others and can be affected by bullying to the extent of it affecting their self-worth. It is significant for children to be optimistic and have a strong level of resilience to what life throws at them.

 

It is hard for children with low self-esteem to establish social relationships. Children and young people with immature emotional intelligence will be trapped into their closet unfitting for their personal, social, and emotional wellbeing. They may shy to interact with new people and extend relationship with others that had not experience prejudice and discrimination in the past. Children and young people can have prejudice against same-sex relationship, interracial relationships, and relationship with a remarkable age difference. Marriage equality between same-sex couples, interracial relationship, and unions with a notably age gap are accepted by the law and favoured by the majority (Parker, 2022). Children and young are very conscious of being discriminated against and that will make them be friendless, have the feeling of being isolated and that may lead to increase in absenteeism from school. It is important for children and young to be aware and accept their own prejudice as that will pave the way to address the issue. The best way of breaking the barrier of prejudice in social relationship is to build the attitude of friendliness, trust, empathy, and tolerance.

 

There will be difficulty in education where a child and young person is unhappy. Children and young people that are unhappy will find it difficult to absorb new information. A child with emotional problem, either through bullying at school or difficulties from their household, will find it difficult to concentrate in learning. It is significant for schools to investigate the reasons for the emotional problem of a child and young person. The Delors Commission proposed the four pillars of education to be learning to understand, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to coexist, and that if that is the basis of meaningful education, then the fundamental and sustained goal of life should be about minimising prejudice (Sobe, 2021). Jacques Delors stressed that lessening prejudice has the outcome of mitigating the obstacles that stand in the way of social unity, open-mindedness, self-awareness, and improved mentality desired to open new chances meant to work with varying people. The child and young person should rise above their prejudice and emotional challenges. They should embrace education within the four pillars proposed by Delors.

 

 

Sharing the Classroom Experience of the Different Ways to Integrate the Principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Working with Children and Young People

 

 Equality, diversity, and inclusion are inevitable principles practice in my school. Treating students and teachers equally regardless of race, sexual orientation, disability, religion, gender, and age are the core principles of my school. We are a multicultural institution as we accept and promote differences among students and teachers and try to treat each other as human beings and one people striving towards a common goal. We strive in the classroom for our students to recognise and respect diversity and build an inclusive atmosphere. The eight meaningful equities in the classroom strategies start with oneself, developing equity for your students, providing hybrid learning, addressing inappropriate remarks, building an equitable classroom environment, encouraging different learning styles, examining the teaching materials, and giving students a voice (Kampen, 2022). The practical experience will focus on five meaningful equitable strategies in the classroom

 

Promoting equality in the classroom start with oneself. My actions are directed towards the elimination of assumptions and biases towards colleagues and students. I treat colleagues and students as human beings and continue to be tolerant to their differences. I work with colleagues as a team, accept their varying views, see them as human beings, and equal. I provide a fair treatment to my students and ensure that the issues of prejudice and discrimination are never evident in the delivery of services.

 

Moving around the classroom and ensuring a fair attention to all students are what we do in our classroom. Every student is given a fair attention and our courses are delivered to meet the varying needs of our students. We move around the classroom to provide the opportunity for students that need support and encourage our students to participate in the learning process.

 

We provide hybrid learning to our students through a flexible learning approach to our students. We use visual, oral, and written methods in the delivery of our courses. We have a smart board, computers, and iPads with internet facilities available to facilitating learning, and that is accessible to all our students. We tune learning based on need assessment and being performance oriented.

 

We are aware that our students come to the classroom with their prejudice and assumption. We sometimes encounter a situation where a students use inappropriate remark that contravenes classroom guidelines. We deal with the situation by stopping the learning session (Pause), raise the issue without shaming the student and making the student aware that such inappropriate word goes against the principle of equality (Address), talking personally to the  student to assist him or her to understand the inappropriateness of the comment and how that is damaging to the  promotion of equality (Discuss) and creating a follow-up to determine the next course of action where the behaviour is repeating (Follow-up).

 

We have a learning approach that supports an equitable classroom environment. The approach is based on enforcing an unbiased classroom rule, striving for different opinions and responses to questions that are raised, respect the varying views of students, employ the use of arbitrary response methods, and celebrate the birthday of all the students. Furthermore, we provide the platform for students to embrace the culture of their colleagues through an informative chest activity that makes them to bring in three objects that defines their cultural identity, encourage them through arts to decorate the outside of a box with images that shows how they feel others see them and open a classroom discussion on whether they learnt anything new about their themselves and their colleagues, and raise the issue on how their cultural identity impact their choices, believe and activities (Adams, Maurianne and Bell, 2016).

 

It is significant to promote an inclusive classroom for students, as that would encourage students to participate fully in school curriculum, and the concern for inclusion should not only be focus on children with Special Education Needs but children with specific challenges or disengaged or from ethnic minority groups who are similarly vulnerable (Burnham and Brenda, 2010).  The approach to teaching continues to focus on providing a learning environment that is equitable and inclusive to the students. Equality in a classroom is a process and there is no immediate outcome to it. Encouraging an equitable classroom can be advantageous to all the students in the classroom and helpful in improving student performance.

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

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Burnham, L.and Brenda, B. (2010) Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools. Essex: Pearson Education Limited

 

 

Author:

Prince Foday