Celebrating Black History Month 2026

October is Black History Month in the UK, and at MTS we're marking it by celebrating the people whose learning, persistence and achievement have shaped British life.

The UK first marked the month in 1987, when Ghanaian-born Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, then working at the Greater London Council, helped bring the idea to London. Nearly forty years on, it has grown into a nationwide moment to recognise Black British history as British history.

Why exams matter to this story

An exam result is more than a grade. For generations of Black Britons, a qualification has been proof that could not be argued with: evidence of ability in rooms where ability was too often doubted. In 1971, the Grenadian-born teacher Bernard Coard published a landmark study showing how Caribbean children in British schools were being wrongly placed in schools for the "educationally subnormal". It sparked a movement of parents, teachers and Saturday supplementary schools determined that Black children would get the education (and the qualifications) they deserved.

That determination is the theme that we want to celebrate this month: the belief that a fair test, sat on equal terms, can change lives.

Pioneers who passed the test, and then changed it

-Dr Harold Moody came to London from Jamaica in 1904 to study medicine at King's College London. He qualified with distinction, yet was turned down for hospital posts because of his colour. Rather than give up, he opened his own practice in Peckham and, in 1931, founded the League of Coloured Peoples to campaign against the same discrimination he had faced.

-Walter Tull, one of Britain's first Black professional footballers, became the first Black infantry officer in the British Army in 1917, at a time when military rules explicitly barred men "not of pure European descent" from holding a commission. He earned his commission through officer training, despite rules written to shut him out.

-Professor Sir Geoff Palmer arrived from Jamaica as a teenager in 1955 and went on to become Scotland's first Black professor, at Heriot-Watt University. His research in grain science transformed the brewing industry, and he has spent decades championing education and equality.

-Dame Elizabeth Anionwu trained as a nurse and health visitor and became the UK's first sickle cell and thalassaemia nurse specialist, building services and qualifications in an area that had long been overlooked.

-Baroness Valerie Amos, the first Black woman to serve in the UK Cabinet, made history again in 2020 as the first Black head of an Oxford college, at University College.

Every candidate, every centre

Across our UK test centres, from London and Birmingham to Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow, MTS welcomes candidates from every background and every corner of the world. Some are sitting ACCA or ICAEW papers on the way to a career in finance. Some are taking IELTS English language tests to study or work in the UK – Nigerians make up the biggest nationality amongst our IELTS test takers in the UK, for example.

It is important to remember that the Windrush Generation, who began arriving from the Caribbean in 1948, came to help rebuild the country and helped shape modern Britain. Many of today's exam candidates are writing their own chapters of a similar story of migration into Britain, and we're proud to play a small part in it.

Our job is simple to describe and important to get right: a calm, well-run exam room where every candidate is treated with the same respect and has the same chance to show what they know.

Join in this October

There are plenty of ways to mark the month, whether you're a candidate, a colleague or a reader:

• Learn a name you didn't know. Pick one of the pioneers above and read a little more about their story.

• Find an event near you. Libraries, museums and community groups across the UK run talks, exhibitions and family events throughout October. The official Black History Month site lists many of them.

• Share your story. If sitting an exam at MTS opened a door for you, we'd love to hear about it. We like to tell others about how our exams help people from all backgrounds to achieve their life goals.

Black history is made every day, including in exam rooms up and down the country. To everyone sitting a test with us this month: good luck!