Nursery school children 'using racist language'

Nursery-age children have been using racist language towards others, according to the chief executive of Race Council Cymru.

Uzo Iwobi said a three-year old child at a school in the south Wales valleys used an extremely offensive racist comment.

It was one of five racist incidents in a week at the unnamed school which left one teacher "in despair", she added.

Mrs Iwobi was giving evidence to the Welsh Assembly's culture committee.

"Some of the language could not actually be attributed to a three-and-a-half-year-old, so they're hearing this from somebody", she said.

Mrs Iwobi also told AMs that young children were being influenced by negative media portrayals of black people.

The revelation came during her evidence which was part of an inquiry into the teaching of Welsh history.

She said she was encouraged by Welsh Government moves to include black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) history in the school curriculum.

Mrs Iwobi said BAME history had been ignored and there was a "burning need to deal with this injustice".

She told AMs the history curriculum needed to include the BAME community's contribution to Wales.

"My children were born in Swansea and they've learned about the 1066 Norman conquest, but they know nothing about Paul Robeson, who came here and fought for the miners, they know nothing about Betty Campbell [the first black headmistress in Wales]," she said.

"Abdul Rahim, who was born in Cardiff to a Somali family, who rose to a number two position in the United Nations serving as a UN under-secretary general - who knows that history in Wales?

"The sad thing for us in the black movement is that our children don't know their own history."

Mrs Iwobi said she welcomed a recent Welsh Government announcement that the history of the Windrush generation would be included in the curriculum and taught in all schools.

Committee chairwoman Bethan Sayed said she and other AMs would work with her to address the issue of racism in schools.