The number of black and ethnic minority principals leading further education colleges in England has dropped to around a dozen, amid claims of systemic racism in the sector. Those working in FE say there has been a sharp decline in BAME college leaders, down from 13% in 2017 to around 5% or 6% today, while the number of BAME students has gone up so they now form 30% of the FE student body. Of the 239 FE colleges in England, it is estimated that between 12 and 14 are now led by BAME principals, according to the Association of Colleges, which says it has no official data. A group calling itself the Black Further Education Leadership Group has written an open letter to the government, shared exclusively with the Guardian, demanding urgent action to address racism in FE which it says is undermining “the sector’s ability to fully engage with all its constituent communities”. It says the FE sector has “gone backwards” in terms of BAME leadership, with no systematic monitoring, training or positive action to address the issue. It also highlights concerns about the 13% attainment gap between BAME students who go on to higher education and their white peers. “The supporting data and our lived experiences present an uncomfortable truth,” the letter states, “that too many BAME students and staff have for far too long encountered a hostile environment and a system that places a ‘knee on our neck’. It is self-evident that we will not accept this moving into the future.” Inspired by the global Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the US, the letter’s organisers want anti-racism to be central to the government’s new vision for FE, which will be outlined in a white paper, due to be published later this year. The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has said he wants to raise the status of FE and put it centre-stage. The letter says: “We believe FE is vital to the government’s economic recovery plan, but until the issues outlined in this letter are understood and addressed, the vision for a ‘levelling up’ of society will remain an aspiration. “Furthermore, the adverse impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities threatens to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities. Never has there been such a need for a clear strategy and investment in skills development and training to narrow the gap.” One of the organisers of the letter, Robin Landman, who was co-founder and former chief executive of the Network for Black Professionals and has held senior roles in FE, said it was “hugely disappointing” to see the sector go backwards after a period of progress in terms of race equality. The Macpherson report, which made a series of recommendations following the racially motivated killing of Stephen Lawrence, resulted in the Commission for Black Staff in Further Education being set up and its 2002 report, Challenging Racism: Further Education Leading the Way, set out comprehensive recommendations. Since then, with a decade of austerity, race equality in FE has slipped off the top of the agenda. “If we had sustained even a fraction of that momentum, we would have had a good story to tell,” said Landman, who claimed a number of minority ethnic principals had been driven out of the sector by “unsubstantiated public smears” in the past five years. The open letter makes a series of recommendations, including a radical revision of FE curriculums and qualifications to reflect contemporary British values, the importance of colonial history and its influence on society, the impact of racism on black and white communities and the contributions made by black people to society. It also calls for the consideration of racial equality to be a central component of all teacher training, professional development and leadership programmes and for the inclusion of anti-racist pedagogy in teacher training. The letter further proposes recruitment processes should address imbalances in the diversity of leadership at all levels and that all colleges should annually publish student performance, as well as staff and governor profile data, by ethnicity, including actions to address identified gaps. Responding to the letter, David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, acknowledged there was a diversity deficit in FE leadership, as elsewhere in society. “It should not just be on black leaders to fix the issues of societal racism. It is on us all,” he said. “More needs to be done to support the black leaders we have, as well as encouraging and supporting the black leaders of the future. More also needs to be done to understand the experience, achievement and progression of black students in FE.” A Department for Education spokesman said: “There is no place for racism in our society or in our education system, and our colleges provide an inclusive, welcoming environment for students from all backgrounds. “We provide grant funding to the Education and Training Foundation to run a diversity in leadership programme which has been set up to remove obstacles to attaining leadership roles in FE.”