Local organisation the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation says it’s responding to concerns from schools in the Western Cape with a series of teacher training workshops focussing on race.

The institute’s Felicity Harrison says in spite of the integration of schools over the past 25 years, teachers have not been taught how to deal with racism and race-related issues.

It’s been a very big gap in the training of teachers

Our position is this (racism) is definitely a systemic problem, you can’t have 400 years of apartheid and colonialism and not expect there to be some institutional remnants of racism in our schools.

Harrison says often the problem lies in schools where little transformation has take place.

The approach is ‘we don’t have a problem’, well you don’t have a problem because you don’t have diversity.

It places the child in a very difficult position

And what about those teachers and parents who don’t want to talk about race, and those who say it doesn’t matter?

I understand the impetus towards people wanting to say they are ‘colourblind’, but the reality is colour does matter. By saying it doesn’t matter you ignore the trauma that people are experiencing because of the colour of their skin.

Felicity Harrison, Head: Sustained Dialogues Programme – Institute for Justice and Reconciliation

Listen to the full interview below: https://bit.ly/2q2eOFa

Source: Cape Talk