THE COMMISSION FOR RACIAL EQUALITY
INVESTIGATION into Sheffield Medical School
Concern was expressed about the failure
rate of ethnic minority students in October 1997.
In fairness it must be emphasised
that it is always, without exception, in the interest of the university
that students should pass exams. People who engage in discriminatory
practices are contravening the interests of the university and add
to the workload of their colleagues. Unfortunately the link between
knowledge and behaviour is not always so obvious. If it were so, then
no person would ever smoke, take drugs etc.
A local MP, Mr. Richard Allan, MP
for Sheffield Hallam made representations after someone made enquiries.
The MP wrote to Mr. Page, the Undergraduate Dean of this University's
medical school on 21/10/97. The informant was concerned about the
anonymous marking system adopted by the University in 1994. The MP
said in his letter that it was alleged that the names of the students
were in fact easily identifiable to those doing the marking. There
was a suggestion that there was a list of names against the numbers
used on exam papers which was known to be available to course tutors.
It was further alleged that this had led to a racial bias creeping
into the marking whereby a higher proportion of ethnic minority students
was failing than would be statistically normal.
The informant gave the official fail
lists to the MP. In the 5th year of the 1996/97 session group of medical
student's 27/181 students were of home ethnic origin. Almost exactly
15% In this medical school at the time there were three subjects taught
in rotation. They are Obstetrics and Gynaecology, paediatrics and
psychiatry. Among all those who failed Obstetrics and Gynaecology
in that year 7/18 that failed were of ethnic minority. The exam consisted
of 25% attachment marks, 12.5% coursework 25% essays and 37.5% Objective
structured clinical exam (OSCE) In the OSCE candidates were given
a two-digit candidate number to put on their papers. The list of names
and numbers was put on a notice board for all to see. On essay papers
at Sheffield University there is a confidentiality flap which is very
difficult to seal down. Candidates have to write their names underneath
the flap. Although there is nothing to stop a student sealing down
the flap with sello-tape or stapling it down.
In Paediatrics 5/7 that failed were
of ethnic minority. Paediatrics was, under that system 50% continuos
assessment, 25% OSCE and 25% clinical exam. If the candidate failed
the clinical exam it resulted in an outright fail. In psychiatry 5/12
that failed were of ethnic origin. This exam consisted of a clinical
exam, a written paper and an attachment. Dr. Peters would openly admit
to having the list of names and numbers before the papers were marked
and insist that the students wrote their names on the papers. Of the
students who had to drop down a year into this group of students due
to exam failure seven were of ethnic minority. Six were in Obstetrics
and Gynaecology.
In Mr. Page's reply of 23 October
1998 he said "The Medical School adheres to this policy. However
the system cannot guarantee complete anonymity as the identifier of
an individual student is the student registration number, access to
which is available to nearly every department in the University, via
the Management and Administrative computer. Internal examiners do
not receive the list of names corresponding to student registration
number." Clearly if the allegations regarding the Dr. Peters
were true then Mr. Page was not telling the MP the truth. Mr. Page
went on to say "any academic member of staff with a will to identify
the name of an individual form their registration number could do
so but when faced with having to mark nearly 200 or so scripts to
a tight deadline would waste time doing so." He did not mention
the confidentiality flap nor the fact that not every examiner would
mark 200 scripts. The question is what about students on courses where
there are not so many students? On top of that what about resits where
there are very few students?
"Project work submitted for assessment
in the first two years of the course uses student registration number
as an identifier." In theory, it has been known that such work
is done by name, but the work is handed back to the student once marked.
"In the latter stages of the course, assessment includes clinical
and oral examinations, which are obviously conducted face to face
and cannot be anonymous. Individual examiner biasing the whole assessment
is minimal. These safeguards are threefold:
1) A range of assessment at each level
of the course ensures that a number of examiners would be responsible
for assessing each candidate, with each component of the examination
often having a different set of examiners.
2) Clinical and oral examinations
are conducted by examining pairs, with each examiner marking independently
of the other before arriving at an agreed mark.
3) The External Examiner is present
to moderate marks and to ensure standards are comparable with other
medical schools." As far as the failure rate of ethnic minority
students was concerned he said:
"I am unable to comment on the
failure rate of any particular group of students. The school does
not routinely monitor failure rates based on race, nationality, ethnic
origin or gender but believes the above procedures should ensure that
racial bias does not occur."
The MP was not satisfied and wrote
back to Mr. Page on 21/11/97. He said "I feel that the introduction
of a secure system of student identification for closed book examinations
and routine monitoring of failure rates would help the University
in responding to allegations of bias." Catherine Davison a senior
member of staff of the Medical School replied on 26/11/97. In her
letter she stated that she had passed on the letter to the University
Teaching Committee, To date there has been no reply. This made the
press in one of the local papers on 26/11/97. On 28/11/97 the then
academic and welfare secretary of the Student Union wrote to Professor
Woods, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine about this article. She
expressed concern that "It was alleged in this article that the
University's policy on anonymous marking was not being fully implemented
by your faculty. I am also aware that discrepancies following the
procedure were acknowledged by the faculty during a student review
hearing at which a member of the Unions Student Advice Centre was
present representing a student."
The academic and welfare secretary
was also concerned by the allegations of racial bias against students
from ethnic minorities. She said "Could you please send me any
statistics on failure rates, compared to the intake of ethnic minority
students and could you let me know what monitoring is carried out
by your faculty? I would also be grateful if you could send me a written
assurance that the Medical Faculty is abiding by the University's
anonymous marking policy."
Professor Woods replied on 17/12/97.
He said "I know of ONE instance where an ambiguous statement
made by a lecturer led to confusion in the minds of the students sitting
an examination. It is wrong to extrapolate from this single episode
to a general statement that the Faculty as a whole has not implemented
the University policy on anonymous marking. At the Faculty Student
Review Committee, to which you refer, the Committee did acknowledge
that a discrepancy had occurred on one occasion but this was not done
with any intention to identify individuals and it was understood that
the marking of the examination was conducted fairly and without bias,
in accordance with the Departments usual practice." If they have
been caught once how many times have they done it?
Professor Woods did not send the academic
and welfare secretary any failure lists nor a written assurance that
the medical faculty was abiding by the anonymous marking policy. The
student union has confirmed that the department concerned was the
department of psychiatry. As far as monitoring was concerned he said
"I am unable to answer your general allegation about racial bias
in examination within the Faculty of Medicine. As you should know,
and in accordance with the University Equal opportunities Policy,
the Faculty does not record, nor have access to, details of ethnic
origin of individual students. We are therefore unable to monitor
failure rates based on ethnic origin."
However he obviously took the letter
from the Academic and Welfare Secretary seriously. He sent courtesy
copies of his reply to The Registrar of the University, Mr. Page,
Professor Sharp (Dean of the medical school) and Hilary Shenton. (The
Senior administrative member of staff at the medical school.) It is
also interesting to note that the new course handbook also makes a
statement on equal opportunities.
All this material was passed onto
the Commission for Racial Equality. In their letter of 2 February
1998 to the informant they stated that "in the case of Obstetrics
and Gynaecology exams and the Paediatrics results the disproportionate
impact of the failure rate on ethnic minority students seems to be
a real cause for concern." They commented on the response of
the Mr Page's reply to the MP. "He states that the medical school
does not monitor failure rates but seems to have a belief, (possibly
divine) that their procedures are free and fair from racial bias.
Given that the University must be aware of the concerns in their exams
and their apparent commitment to a programme of action to make their
comprehensive equal opportunities policy effective" it seems
strange that they have not decided neither to monitor the situation
or take any action as a result..
"It would seem useful for the
Commission to raise its concerns about these issues with the University
and possibly investigate the medical schools examination system in
particular."
The CRE agreed with the informant
that three things were clear: 1) The University was clearly not following
its own rules. 2) The University procedures were clearly inadequate.
3) The University was bound by it's own equal opportunities policy
to do something about the problem. The CRE said that they had heard
the same thing from other students before, which is no such discrimination,
has EVER been alleged in the pre-clinical part of the medical course.
It is in the clinical part of the course that such acts occur. In
July 1998 after much liasing between the CRE and the University, the
CRE confirmed that the University agreed to monitor failure rates
by ethnic origin as of the 1998/99 academic year in all courses. However
who is doing the monitoring? Dr. Peters, the department of paediatrics
or obstetrics and gynaecology? However the University have made another
step to make sure this cannot happen again. The results are now put
up in a lockable glass cabinet where nobody can take them down again.
Despite that in December 1999 the
then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Professor A. P. Weetman wrote
an article in Student BMJ arguing why students should NOT have their
papers back once marked.
UNITED NATIONS SLAMS BRITAIN AGAIN,
AND AGAIN
The United Nations'Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination criticised Britain for failing
to rid itself of racism. British Home Secretary, Jack ("the last")
Straw is upset! Meanwhile, a survey found that Britain's racial minorities
felt that "much of their potential remained untapped".
UNITED NATIONS SLAMS BRITAIN'S HUMAN
RIGHTS RECORD. A devastating United Nations report has condemned the
UK's human rights record and called for sweeping reforms to the secret
security services, an end to gagging orders and protection for journalists
who expose wrong-doing inside the secret and unaccountable MI5 and
MI6 intelligence services. The report from a UN special rapporteur,
Abid Hussein, calls for the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism
Act, and sweeping changes to the Official Secrets Act and the freedom
of information and regulation of investigatory powers bills going
through Parliament. It also wants a reform of the defamation and obscenity
laws.
WESTERN ALLIES BLAMED FOR GENOCIDE.
An international panel commissioned by the Orgaisation for African
Unity to investigate the 1994 genocide in Rwanda issued its findings
in 'Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide', placing the brunt of the blame
on the UN Security Council, the United States, France and Belgium
for their failure to prevent the massacres. The report was welcomed
by the UN Secretary-General, who hoped it would make an effective
contribution to grapple with the complex challenges of preventing
genocide.
COMMENT - CRIPPLING THE RACIAL MINORITY
COMMUNITIES - REPORT ON RACISM FROM THE HEART OF LONDON'S EAST END
THE SYSTEM FOR CHOOSING JUDGES AND QUEEN'S COUNSELS is riddled with
indirect race and sex discrimination, according to a report carried
out for the Lord Chancellor's Department.
ALLOCATION OF PERFORMANCE PAY IN THE
NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE is riddled with racism, according to a survey
published by the health union MSF.
BRITAIN SHAMED BY UNICEF OVER CHILD
POVERTY
Britain has one of the worst records
on childhood poverty in the industrialised world, according to a damning
United Nations (UNICEF) report. The report says the British figure
is worse than the rates for Turkey, Poland and Hungary, which suffer
less relative poverty. Of 23 countries surveyed, only Italy, the United
States and Mexico have a worse record. The report accuses Britain
of failing on five key indicators. In addition to the high rate of
child poverty, these are the high numbers of lone-parent families
suffering from poverty; workless households; people on low wages;
and people on low benefits.
UNICEF says that nearly 20% of young
Britons - between 3 million and 4 million children - live in families
that are below the official poverty line, judged as household income
of less than half median earnings. That compares with 2.6% in Sweden
and 3.9% in Norway.
IMPERIALISM, THE ANGLICAN CHURCH,
CHILD ABUSE AND ARSE MONEY
The Anglican Church of Canada is braced
for brankruptcy, submerged by claims for damages, for the alleged
sexual abuse of native Canadians in its children's homes, amounting
to $1.3 billion.
The revelations of the spartan and
loveless conditions in the homes, and the traumas suffered by the
children who were forced into them mirror similar allegations involving
schools and homes run by churches across the world, from Ireland to
Australia.
The Canadian Anglican Journal, which
carried a long report last month, on the church's culpability, quoted
one of the first native Canadians to receive a financial settlement,
Ben Pratt of the Gordon Indian Reserve at Punnichy, in Saskatchewan.
Mr Pratt said: "It is not like the money will make me happpy
or make me feel better, but I might as well get something for what
those bastards did to me. Around here it is called arse money.....it
is supposed to be dirty".
Mr Pratt is said to have received
$31,000 compensation for being repeatedly raped from the age of seven
by William Starr, director of the residential home on the reservation
in the 1960s, and later administrator of the school. About 7,000 Indians
have lodged cases, mostly against the government.
THE GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR in Britain
continued to grow through the 1990s, according to a report of the
Office of National Statistics. In April 1998, about three million
children were living below the poverty line in families with incomes
of less than 60% of the median income.
STRONG EVIDENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
EXISTS IN THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE, an independent inquiry has
concluded. Meanwhile, the EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS HAS RULED
THAT AN ASIAN MAN accused of fraud was denied a fair trial when the
judge at Birmingham crown court allowed the jury to continue hearing
the case after a juror complained of racist comments by fellow jurors.
RECORDED RACIAL CRIME HAS RISEN DRAMATICALLY
in the past year, Scotland Yard has said. Eight out of ten racial
incidents were unsolved. Other studies have suggested that racial
crime is vastly under-reported, with police being told of only one
in twenty incidents.
NEW BRITISH EMPIRE OF THE DAMMED
Bolivia's water is the latest acquisition
of UK firms in the service of Uncle Sam. The new owners of the water
system, International Waters Ltd. of London, IWL, is controlled by
a larger US corporation, Bechtel. IWL has not put any funds into the
water projects. Water prices could rise by 150%.
In Buenos Aires, the region's first
water privatisation consortium made 7,500 workers redundant, whereupon
the system bled from lack of maintenance, and prices jumped. The new
owners of the Buenos Aires system include Anglian Water.
Britain is re-establishing imperial
reach through rapid low-capital takeovers of former state assets,
concentrated in infrastructure where monopoly capital virtually guarantees
an outsized profit. It all seemed a risk-free romp - until a few thirsty,
angry peasants decided that they could stop it.
SCANDAL OF THOUSANDS ABUSED IN CHILDREN'S
HOMES
Police are investigating what could
be one of Britain's biggest child abuse scandals involving as many
as 20,000 children in council care. At the Bristol homes, police found
a disturbing pattern of abuse. Many of the suspected victims were
boys and girls who passed through the centres before moving back home,
to foster homes or another institution.
Furthermore, a £13.5 million
inquiry has revealed how thousands of children in public care in Wales
were abandoned to years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. The
Welsh Secretary told Parliament that the report by Sir Ronald Waterhouse,
a former High Court judge, catalogued "deeds of appalling mistreatment"
in children's homes in north Wales. The 937-page report, 'Lost in
Care', published after a three-year inquiry described "a harsh
institutional regime in which, for many, there was a heavy atmosphere
of fear.....for many children who were consigned to [one home], in
the 10 or so years of its existence as a community home, it was a
form of purgatory or worse from which they emerged more damaged than
when they had entered, and for whom the future had become even more
bleak".
CAGE-BASED SOCIAL CONTROL IN BRITAIN
New Home Office statistics show that
courts in England and Wales are among the toughest in western Europe.
Only Portugal hands down longer jail sentences.
The prison population in England and
Wales is 68,000, or 126 inmates per 100,000 poplation - again second
only to Portugal in western Europe. Proportionately more people are
jailed in England and Wales than in Sudan, Saudi Arabia or China.
In world terms the figure compares with 690 per 100,000 in Russia,
668 inmates per 100,000 in the United States and 215 per 100,000 in
the Czech Republic.
The Home Office said 1998 figures
from 29 countries showed that while crime rose by 5% across the industrialised
world, it fell by 1% in England and Wales. In Scotland it rose by
3%, and in Northern Ireland by 28% (to 76,664 offences), second behind
South Africa (37%).
OLD BOYS NETWORK SURVIVES IN THE APPOINTMENT
OF JUDGES
A watchdog to oversee the apppointment
of judges was announced by the Lord Chancellor, prompting fury from
legal groups who accused him of missing an opportunity for a radical
shake-up of the controversial "secret soundings" system.
The current process, which relies
on confidential assessments of candidates by judges and senior legal
figures is widely seen as unfair by lawyers. The president of the
Law Society said, "An old boys' network which uses flawed criteria
to select judges will be replaced by an old boys' network which uses
slightly better criteria".
Several high-level committees have
recommended an independent appointments committee as operates in the
U.S. and many other European countries. In Britain there are no black
or Asian high court judges, and only 42 women among the 534 full-time
judges in England and Wales, 70% of whom were educated in fee-paying
schools.
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
Britain is the worst country in the
European Union in which to be a child, according to a study by UNICEF
for the Institute of Public Policy Research. The United Kingdom comes
out bottom of the table out of the 15 countries on three of the seven
indicators of child poverty, and below average on two others.
BANANA REPUBLIC OR CIVILISED DEMOCRACY?
The UK government wants to prosecute
Martin Ingram, a former member of the army's force research unit -
a covert arm of military intelligence - who has made allegations about
attempts to sabotage an inquiry by Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan
poice commissioner, into collaboration between the army and loyalists
in Northern Ireland.
The Defence Secretary, Geoffrey Hoon,
has obtained an injunction preventing newspapers from reporting further
revelations by Mr Ingram.
Sir John has reportedly ordered an
investigation into allegations that the unit burgled and burnt down
his offices, to destroy evidence. Jane Winter, director of British
Irish Watch, said that if the allegations about army involvement in
the arson were true," then that is more reminiscent of a banana
republic than a civilised democracy".
CONTINUED EROSION OF CIVIL RIGHTS
Although section 16a of the Prevention
of Terrorism Act was described a year ago by Lord Bingham, the Lord
Chief Justice, as undermining "in a blatant and obvious way,
the presumption of of innocence ",almost identical clauses appear
in a new anti-terrorism bill now before Parliament.
JUSTICE SYSTEM RIDDLED WITH RACISM
Every key stage of the British criminal
justice system is riddled with racism, according to a study by the
Howard League penal reform group. It says that British Afro-Caribbean
people are seven times more likely to be in jail even though they
are no more likely to commit crimes.
FURTHER ASSAULTS ON VULNERABLE CHILDREN
The processing of women asylum seekers
caught begging with their children is to be fast-tracked, and those
who fail to qualify for refugee status will be removed from Britain,
under plans being considered by the Home Office.
PARENTS MAY BE JAILED
Parents could be jailed for three
months and face £2,500 fines for failing to make their truant
children attend school, under new powers in the Criminal Justice and
Court Services Bill published last week.
COMMENT - REPORT ON RACISM FROM THE
HEART OF LONDON'S EAST END - TOWER HAMLETS RACE EQUALITY COUNCIL'S
ANNUAL REPORT
1998 has been another year of heartbreak and heartache for the racial
minorities. Atavistic and unsalubrious practices from other eras and
other lands, from the theories and practices of apartheid, fascism
(both of the right as well as of the left) and colonialism have now
taken root in the political culture of the metropolitan heartland.
Some of our children have died from racial violence on the streets
of the capital. Others are being "educated", if indeed that
can be called "education", in sink schools in dilapidated
areas in the inner city. Our womenfolk are being denied access to
their traditional areas of training and employment in the nursing
and teaching professions. The sick, for example, the diabetics, the
disease itself often a consequence of stress, are frequently inadequately
treated, as they await a premature death.
The exclusion of minorities from participation
in the National Health Service and the teaching profession, for example,
prevents the communities from fostering a positive culture and knowledge
of health and healing, and of education and care. Furthermore, there
has been a targeting and destruction of intellectuals and professionals,
of those who are most useful to their communities, this, again, a
not uncommon practice amongst authoritarian states. In Tower Hamlets,
we live and work in the very birthplace of racism and fascism, these
now having, seemingly, taken on different and respectable guises and
operating from positions of influence.
In summary, there has been a wanton
destruction of the human and material resources of the racial minority
communities through the policy and practice of enforced racial deprivation.
If Rudy Narayan, the eminent racial minority barrister had been allowed
to continue to practise his profession, many a venomous thug would
have received his comeuppence and landed in prison. Of course, the
state has no intention of letting justice prevail, in these matters
at least. On the other hand, the British South African legal practice
of invoking the "common purpose" provisions of the criminal
code was utilised to convict an innocent young Bangladeshi in Somers
Town, Kings Cross for a murder he did not commit; and so young Miah
languishes in prison on a life sentence, whilst society moves on unconcerned.
Finally, let us quote from the German
theologian and Bishop of the German Reformed Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
who died in 1944, a prisoner of the National Socialist government
of the Third Reich. "First they (the National Socialists) came
for the communists, but I did nothing because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I was
not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I did
nothing because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the
racial minorities, but I did nothing because I did not belong to the
racial minorities. Finally, they came for me, but there was, by then,
no one who could help me".
