Statue of Wales' first black head teacher to be unveiled

A statue to honour Wales' first black head teacher and black history campaigner, Betty Campbell, is due to be unveiled later in Cardiff.

Campbell, who died in 2017, was told as a child that the problems getting her dream job as a head teacher would be "insurmountable".

The statue is believed to be the first statue of a named, non-fictional woman in an outdoor public space in Wales.

A survey of statues, carried out in 2018, found that just one in five statues in Britain were of women, with most of fictional characters or unnamed figures. What's more, an audit conducted last year found there were no statues of any named individual of black heritage in outdoor public spaces in Wales, with just "an anonymous statue group in Cardiff Bay".

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The unveiling of this statue is an important moment to consider the progress of equality for Black, Asian and ethnic minority teachers and leaders in the education profession.
 
“Betty Campbell was a trailblazer, as are many of the leaders in NAHT’s own ‘leaders for race equality’ group, who recently published a book about their experiences of race and racism during their careers.
 
“But there is still much more work to be done. We know that our profession is not yet representative of the communities we serve, and that this is a particular issue at senior leadership level. That’s why it’s so important that these experiences are heard as widely as possible as there is still a lack of awareness and understanding within the sector.
 
“The statue unveiling today is an opportunity to spread that awareness and to consider how we can uplift leaders and learners alike.”