Betty Campbell: Wales's first black head teacher dies aged 82

Lifelong campaigner for diverse curriculum, who was awarded an MBE in 2015, passed away at home after months of illness

Campbell made history when she was appointed the head of Mount Stuart Primary in Cardiff in the 1970s (Welsh National Assembly)

Wales’s first black head teacher has died at the age of 82, her husband has said.

Betty Campbell, who made history when she was appointed the head of Mount Stuart Primary in Cardiff in the 1970s, died at home in the Welsh capital on Friday after being unwell for several months, according to BBC Wales.

She was born in Cardiff in 1934 to a Jamaican father and Welsh Barbadian mother, and qualified as a teacher in the 1960s.

She later became known as an academic and authority on education outside Wales, and in 2015 was awarded an MBE for services to the community and education.

Ms Campbell also served as a councillor for the Butetown area, and was a governor of BBC Wales during the 1980s.

She went on to become a prominent campaigner for a more diverse curriculum, and was involved in the movement to establish a Black History Month.

Ms Campbell said: “When I was a head in my school, I looked at Black History, the Caribbean, Africa and slavery and the effects.

“That was just a junior school but there were people that said: ‘You should not be teaching that’. Why not? It happened. Children should be made aware.”

More than 40 years after Ms Campbell was appointed head teacher at Mount Stuart, black and minority ethnic teachers remain substantially underrepresented at the highest level.

97 per cent of head teachers at state schools in England are white, according to a 2016 investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Just 7.6 per cent of teachers overall are from BAME backgrounds, according to the investigation, while 25 per cent of pupils come from a minority ethnic background.