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A scene from the recent BBC documentary Subnormal: A British Scandal. Photograph: BBC/BBC trailer
A scene from the recent BBC documentary Subnormal: A British Scandal. Photograph: BBC/BBC trailer
Fri 28 May 2021 05.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 28 May 2021 07.14 EDT
It only took well over 40 years for a TV programme to be made about a disgraceful period in the history of education in Britain that has had long-lasting effects on thousands of people in the Black community. Director Steve McQueen, who dramatised the episode in Small Axe, and Lyttanya Shannon, who directed a recent documentary, Subnormal: A British Scandal (for which I was interviewed), have done a much-needed service in bringing this dismal period of âeducationâ to general attention.
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The scandal of black children sent to special schools
In 1960s and 70s Britain, hundreds of black children were labelled as educationally subnormal , and wrongly sent to schools for pupils who were deemed to have low intelligence. For the first time, some former pupils have spoken about their experiences for a new BBC documentary.
In the 1970s, at the age of six, Noel Gordon was sent to what was known at the time as an educationally subnormal (ESN) boarding school, 15 miles (24km) from his home. That school was hell, says Noel. I spent 10 years there, and when I left at 16, I couldn t even get a job because I couldn t spell or fill out a job application.
BBC News
By Ashley John-Baptiste
image captionNoel Gordon, former ESN student
In 1960s and 70s Britain, hundreds of black children were labelled as educationally subnormal , and wrongly sent to schools for pupils who were deemed to have low intelligence. For the first time, some former pupils have spoken about their experiences for a new BBC documentary.
In the 1970s, at the age of six, Noel Gordon was sent to what was known at the time as an educationally subnormal (ESN) boarding school, 15 miles (24km) from his home. That school was hell, says Noel. I spent 10 years there, and when I left at 16, I couldn t even get a job because I couldn t spell or fill out a job application.
A new BBC documentary has revealed how hundreds of black children were wrongly sent to schools for the emotionally subnormal in the 1960s and 70s because of rampant racism .
Subnormal: A British Scandal, which airs tonight on BBC2 at 9pm, explores how students who were incorrectly deemed to have a limited intellectual ability where sent to ESN schools, which categorised them as having moderate to severe learning disabilities or being un-teachable .
Black children were labelled thick and unintelligent because they couldn t speak the Queen s English , and were prevented from pursuing any further education after leaving the ESN schools.
Many report that there was no real effort to educate them and that they were allowed to play non-educational games, not taught basic literacy and numeracy, and left school with no prospects.