AWARD-WINNING film-maker Steve McQueen has said that the racism which resulted in a disproportionate number of black pupils being sent to schools for the so-called “educationally subnormal (ESN)” in the 1960s and 70s, still continues to put black pupils at a disadvantage in England today.

McQueen is the executive producer for a new documentary to be broadcast on BBC One next week, which explores the devastating impact of now-defunct ESN schools on those that were sent there as children.

It also tells the story of how black parents, educators and activists came together to expose the scandal.

Speaking to The Guardian, McQueen paid tribute to the people who fought to change the system and improve the prospects of thousands of black children, including himself.

In mainstream schools today, he warned that black pupils are still excluded from schools at alarmingly high rates but stressed that young people today have more opportunities to be listened to than his generation.

The documentary idea, Subnormal: A British Scandal, was first born while McQueen was working on another TV project called, Education, a fictional look at the experiences of black children in the English education system in the 70s.

The episode formed part of his ground-breaking five-part anthology series Small Axe, starring John Boyega and Letitia Wright.

Directed by Lyttanya Shannon, the documentary shows how from 1945, children thought to have limited intellectual ability were described by a new term, “educationally subnormal.”

Throughout the 60s and 70s, it applied to black children whose parents had settled in the UK from the Caribbean with “high hopes” of the British education system for their families.

A leaked report by the now abolished Inner London Education Authority revealed the magnitude of the discrimination against black children, who were being pushed out of mainstream school and disproportionately sent to ESN classes based on IQ tests which were biased against black migrant children.

What followed was the release of Bernard Coard’s seminal book, How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System, which exposed the racism in the system.

Its publication prompted parents and educationalist to seek justice and establish supplementary Saturday schools to support their children’s education.

“It was huge. ESN schools do not exist now. It’s why I’m talking to you on the phone today, because I would have been definitely put in one of those schools and bussed out to wherever, limiting my possibilities and prospects,” said McQueen when asked about the change galvanised by black parents and educators.

“They’ve changed people’s lives, not just black people, white people too. Those black parents made it possible for any and everybody to have a chance of succeeding at what they want to do. This is not just about the black community. It’s about the whole community.”