The media cited a report in which 23 schools describe how they "decolonize and diversify" their curriculum following the 2020 killing of African-American man George Floyd in police custody in the United States.
The Thomas Alleyne Academy in Stevenage, a town near London, for example, removed the Nobel Prize winning novella "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck from its curriculum, as, the school said, the book reinforces negative stereotypes and contains racist slurs.
Ashlyns School in Hertfordshire decided that "My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece" by Annabel Pitcher, a novel that won Branford Boase Award in 2012, is also no good for children, as it contains an overly stereotypical Muslim character, according to the report.
Floyd's death in May 2020 sparked violent mass protests against police violence and social injustice across the US which later spilled to Europe.