9:05am Friday 3rd September 2010
ENGLISH Defence League’s controversial protest has led to a sharp increase in racerelated incidents in Bolton’s schools, education chiefs have claimed.
Figures, released by Bolton Council, have revealed there are now, on average, seven racial incidents a week in the town’s schools.
And the EDL protest, along with the World Cup, has been blamed for the rise.
Town hall chiefs have said the “vast majority of reported incidents fall under the bracket of verbal abuse and gestures”.
In spring this year, civic and faith leaders launched the One Bolton Pledge to promote community cohesion.
Scores of people put their names to the pledge in the runup to the EDL demonstration.
But racial incidents in schools during the summer term rocketed from 32 in the first half of the 2009 summer term to 60 in the same period this year.
A council report blames the increase on the EDL rally in the town centre, the focus on immigration in the run up to the general election, the World Cup fever and increase in patriotism and the focus on ethnic difference as well as the current recession.
Racial incidents as a whole have risen from 78 in 2001/02 to 314 in 2008/09.
The report says: “During the autumn term, 41 schools reported an incident, in the spring term 38 schools reported an incident, so far in the summer term 32 schools have reported an incident.”
A Bolton Council spokesman said: “The raw figures show a rise in incidents from 32 in the first half of the 2009 summer termto 60 in the same period this year.
“However, as this year’s first half of the term was two weeks longer, the actual increase is from 6.4 racial incidents per week in the first half of the 2009 summer term, to 8.6 per week for the same period this year.
“Much of this could be attributed to improved reporting by our schools following work done by council officers to highlight awareness and increase reporting accuracy, as well as a number of local and national factors.
“When the full figures for the summer term are known, the council will work hard to explore this issue further with our schools.
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