BLACK teachers are paid less than their white counterparts and remain under-represented at leadership levels, a new National Education Union (NEU) report has revealed.

Figures obtained via a freedom of information request also showed black teachers are more likely to be pushed from the profession through workplace discrimination.

Outside London, black teachers earned 4.5 per cent less than white counterparts. And while one in eight classroom teachers come from black backgrounds, this falls to only 8 per cent among deputy and assistant heads, and just 5 per cent for heads.

The teaching retention crisis is also worse for black teachers, with about 8-12 per cent leaving the English state school system before retirement each year: the figure is about 6-8 per cent for white teachers.

Nearly six in 10 black teachers described workplace discrimination as a major or minor cause of stress, compared with less than 30 per cent of white teachers.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “The ethnicity pay gap among England’s teaching workforce has stayed stubborn for a decade, and this must not go on.

“The urgent recruitment and retention crisis, in which teachers leave the profession just a few years after qualifying, is contributing to a shortage of black teachers in senior positions.

“As well as pay and high workload, these teachers are also leaving because of workplace discrimination.

“As part of the Department for Education’s efforts to solve the recruitment and retention crisis, their strategy must address the loss of black teachers at every career stage.

“We must, together, tackle the barriers facing black teachers. There are so many upsides for students from getting the chance to learn from and be inspired by teachers with different backgrounds.”

The union urged the government to commit to goals contributing to building a diverse profession, the NEU said.

Earlier this year, the National Foundation for Educational Research warned that non-white teachers face an “invisible glass ceiling.”

In 2022, it found that people from black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to progress to leadership roles than white teachers.

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.