Trevor Phillips, the outspoken chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, today defended his proposal to segregate black boys for certain school subjects after the plan was dismissed as 'educational apartheid' and possibly illegal.

Mr Phillips was forced to step in as a row erupted over his suggestion that separate lessons may be needed to overcome years of academic failure by black youths.

Teachers reacted with concern to the proposals, which come after the publication of figures last month showing black teenage boys continuing to lag far behind their white peers in GCSEs.

Martin Ward, the deputy general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association warned that the suggestions could fall foul of racial equality laws. He said: “Clearly there is scope for schools to help all children who are doing badly. But to single out black children for special treatment could be counter-productive and even illegal.”

Mr Phillips insisted the proposals did not break the law. He said the Government had succeeded in raising the performance of children as a whole at GCSE level, but black boys were not improving.

“It seems to me that we need to look for some new ideas because this is costing the whole community, not just the black community or the individuals, a great deal,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“These boys are unemployable, they end up in a situation where, in a sense, they can’t participate in society. So we wanted to look for some radical ideas.”

Mr Phillips said anything that worked was "at least worth considering”. He also insisted that the scheme did not amount to segregation.

“The point is there is a group of boys who we know have a particular set of needs, partly because of their background, partly because of things that they bring into school... and we may need to have some specific tailor-made solutions for them which don’t apply to other people.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Tree stump 'shows image of Virgin Mary'
• BBC drops Strictly judge for younger model
• Trafalgar Square 'reduced to a spectacle'