An exam board has apologised for approving a textbook that had a question about cannibals with a cartoon of black people cooking a white missionary in a pot.
AQA, one of the three main awarding bodies, said that the GCSE psychology textbook, published by Illuminate Publishing in 2017, should never have been approved. The section was highlighted by Lizzie Jordan, the founder of Think2Speak, which mentors young people.
Her child brought home the AQA Psychology for GCSE book. She said: “The five authors, the proofreader, the editor, the publisher, the printer, the educator — the myriad of hands this will have gone through before being a resource in a child’s hands. I can’t understand how stuff like that gets printed.”
The book had an image of two white missionaries captured by cannibals, and asked: “Three missionaries and three cannibals are trying to cross a river, however at no time can there be more cannibals than missionaries on either bank or in the boat. How can they do this?”
The context was a discussion of approaches in which a group working together could generate more ideas than individuals working alone. Damian Page, dean of the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University, asked the publishers on Twitter: “Do you honestly think this is acceptable in one of your textbooks?”
Illuminate Publishing said: “We apologise unreservedly and have withdrawn the book from sale. We are replacing the image and example and are disposing of existing stock. We are deeply sorry for any offence caused.”
An AQA representative said: “We have zero tolerance of racism. There are no excuses and we’re sorry.”
