It is "nonsense" to say scholarships for white boys will create a race divide, says caller

30 December 2019, 12:50 | Updated: 30 December 2019, 14:41

This caller insisted that it is "nonsense" for people to say that providing scholarships to underprivileged white boys will create a race divide.

This is after private schools Dulwich College and Winchester College rejected Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites' offer of over £1 million to provide scholarships for poor white boys.

Caller Dominic, whose family are Caribbean, shared that he was awarded a scholarship to prestigious arts school Italia Conti.

"It certainly made a significant difference to my life at the time and has continued to," he said, and continued that years later when working as a director at a local authority he pointed out concerns that "we were in danger of neglecting working class white young people."

"All the money that was being funded for employment and education initiatives were geared towards the black and ethnic minority communities, which of course it needed to be because of the imbalance at the time.

"I said we need to look ahead because potentially there's going to be a working class group that will be neglected and therefore will be disadvantaged in the future. Nobody really wanted to hear that at the time.

So now when I hear that there is somebody putting forward money to fund places for disadvantaged young white kids in this country, I think it's a fantastic idea and I do think it's a fantastic idea what Stormzy's done. I can't understand what the issue is with people not wanting this to happen and thinking that it's causing some sort of race divide. It's nonsense."

The 96 year old philanthropist Sir Bryan had attended both schools through scholarships and put aside the funds in his will to give other young men the same chances he was given. Reportedly the schools fear breaching anti-discrimination laws.

LBC's presenter Andrew Castle shared how his full tennis scholarship to leading private school Millfield "changed his life" and he said he couldn't understand why Dulwich and Winchester College have rejected Sir Bryan's generosity.

"If you say they are quite right they shouldn't, you can't then turn around and say Stormzy is right to establish Cambridge university scholarships exclusively for black British students. Let's just say yes to it all! Somebody wants to give money, time, effort and thought in helping young people to progress and get up the ladder. Why not?"