Cash-strapped Welsh Labour spend half-a-million on ‘diversity scam’ | Politics | News

The Conservatives have accused the Welsh Labour Government of outrageously spending half a million pounds on promoting ethnic minority students into teaching, while pupils are left suffering in packed classrooms and exam results fall.

The Ethnic Minority Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Incentive was announced by the devolved body last November, revealing a new programme to hand £5,000 to teaching graduates from more diverse backgrounds.

At the time, Education Minister Jeremy Miles said that the rates of ethnic minority teachers in Wales “simply isn’t good enough” and that young people “need to recognise themselves and their own experiences within their leaders”.

A new freedom of information request has revealed that a year on from the programme’s announcement, £235,000 has already been spent on the scheme.

However 101 graduates have applied, meaning Welsh taxpayers are on course to spend at least half a million pounds on the diversity scheme.

According to figures, around 2% of Welsh teachers are from an ethnic minority background, compared to 5% of the total population.

Responding to the freedom of information data, Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davis railed against the “DEI nonsense” that is being spent while Welsh pupils’ education suffers.

He told the Express: “This is exactly the kind of DEI nonsense that drives outcomes in the wrong direction and is being roundly rejected across the Western world.

“Teacher shortages in Wales have precipitated in classroom sizes ballooning, a fifth of pupils leaving primary school functionally illiterate and Welsh schools tumbling down the global PISA rankings.

“Under Labour in Wales, we’ve lost 10% of our teachers in just over a decade. We need more teachers across the board to reverse this trend. Prioritising ethnic minorities is a self-defeating distraction.

“It comes as no surprise to me that the Labour Welsh Government would waste vital funds on this kind of virtue signalling vanity project, given that they blasted millions of taxpayers’ money against a legal brick pushing gender quotas for elections.

“It’s time we ditch this out of touch, outdated thinking as well as the leftists that perpetuate the diversity scam.”

The ITE scheme is available to teaching graduates from Asian, black, mixed, gypsy, or Arab backgrounds, and is one of three teaching grants available from the Welsh government that can total up to £25,000.

The other two programs include a Priority Subject Incentive Scheme – handing £15,000 to those undertaking a teaching specialism most at need – and £5,000 for studying to teach subjects in Welsh.

Last year the Welsh government said inflation had left them with a £900 million shortfall, and was forcing them to stop funding free school meals for eligible teachers during summer holidays.