BLACK CHILDREN are not being represented in school library books, research has revealed.

The UK’s school population has up to 33.5% of pupils originating from diverse backgrounds, but only 65% of schools across England say that they had less than 15% of books with main characters from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in their libraries. 

One of the researchers who uncovered these facts, Nicola Lester, from The University of Manchester, said: “I feel that this piece of research begins to help people understand why it is important to promote diversity amongst the world in which we live, even at the school library level.

“During the project, our eyes were opened to the importance of children being able to see themselves reflected in the books that they read, not only for their academic progress, but for their self-esteem, and affirmation of their self-worth.”

Researchers from The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Keele University partnered with Imagine Me Stories to combat the disparity which they say is affecting the self-esteem of millions of children. 

The findings found that 92% of school staff also agreed that sufficient diversity and inclusion was not reflected in their library collections, but felt powerless to make positive changes due budget restrictions and a lack of resources and books telling the stories of black and other minorities (BAME) as main characters.

Between 2017-2019, only 7% of all children’s books published in the UK contained characters from different cultures and an even smaller 5% depicted BAME leading characters. 

The researchers are now calling on the government and fundraising events to help raise costs to stock school libraries, and have put further pressure on publishers and their authors to meet the growing demand for diversity.

Schools should begin auditing their current position, they say,  to identify gaps where improvements can be made in their book collections.

Despite the growth in children’s literature over the last three years, critics still believe the underrepresentation of realistic ethnic minority characters will prevent a generation of children from developing key skills in “vocabulary, critical thinking and comprehension”.

“It is mind-blowing to learn that in 2021, children of colour still wonder why no one has hair like them in the books that they read. The necessity to ensure that there is readily available, diverse literature in all school libraries is about so much more than simply ticking a box to demonstrate our tolerance to other cultures,” said Ms. Lester.

“Our government needs to look towards funding diverse books in all schools across the UK to begin to address the sheer lack of diverse literature in school libraries, thus giving all children the chance to engage with the associated benefits outlined by this research.”