CYP Now - INTERVIEW: A Black voice for London - Dawn Stephenson director, Black Londoners Forum

The educational underachievement of London's Black children is a major cause for concern. Black Caribbean and Black African pupils lag behind their White counterparts in GCSE attainment and are, according to some sources, twice or three times as likely to be excluded from school, increasing their chances of an encounter with the criminal justice system.

For Dawn Stephenson, director of the Black Londoners Forum and head of the steering group of the Greater London Black Parent and School Governor Network, one of the main causes of this divide is clear - the system institutionally discriminates against young Black people, and males in particular.

"If you're a young Black male, you are more likely to be excluded if you do something wrong, " says Stephenson. "That's down to racism, but not exclusively. I'm not going to say that every exclusion has been a direct result of racism."

In his just-published children's strategy, London mayor Ken Livingstone makes particular reference to the underachievement of the city's Black children. He also notes minority ethnic teachers are "significantly under-represented" in schools when compared to the school population.

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