A COMMUNITY organisation leader in Huddersfield has called for greater vigilance against racism in days of economic austerity.

Milton Brown, chief executive officer of the Parents of Black Children Association also called for greater training and professional development for teachers during the downturn.

Mr Brown was speaking after Kirklees Council revealed that there have been more than 400 reported racial incidents (physical or verbal) against pupils and teaching staff in Kirklees schools over the past three years.

The number of reported incidents has fallen in the past 12 months.

Figures obtained by the Examiner through a Freedom of Information request showed there were 271 incidents in primary schools (79 in 2008, 154 in 2009 and 38 in 2010) and 161 in secondary schools (53 in 2008, 85 in 2009 and 23 in 2010).

Kirklees schools have been required to record and report racist incidents to the local authority and governors since 2000.

Reporting aims to help governors identify specific types of incident and contribute to the school's self-assessment and planning processes.

The local authority uses the information to plan to take steps to prevent and address incidents and also passes on the information to central Government.

Mr Brown said the subject of racism should always be taken in the wider context of discrimination including sexism, ageism and disability discrimination.

He said he believed racist incidents in schools were under-reported and in-house training should be continuous as part of teaching staff’s professional development.

He said with children his organisation took a more humanitarian angle with the “we are all different but equal approach.”

The Parents of Black Children Association runs several courses and workshops aimed at developing young people’s self esteem and using role models from all professions and communities to inspire youngsters.

Mr Brown said there were still some communities in Kirklees where there was the potential of conflict. But he said with conflict came discussion and prevention and intervention work.

But he added that in economically challenging times racism could became a problem as past situations had shown. This needed to be addressed.