Only three black people who want to be history teachers were accepted on to postgraduate teacher training courses last year, according to damning statistics that critics claim expose "institutional racism" in the British education system.

The figures are part of a wider picture in which just 17.2% of black African applicants, and 28.7% of black Caribbean applicants were taken on by teacher training institutions across all subjects, against 46.7% of white applicants.

The revelation provoked claims of racism in the system, with one of Britain's first black professors calling for the government to do some "soul searching" over the state of the profession.

According to the annual statistical report by the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR) published last week, 30 black Caribbean, African or mixed-race people applied to read for a postgraduate certificate in education in history in 2013. One mixed-race applicant was accepted as were up to two black Caribbean or black African applicants – at best a 10% success rate. This stands in stark contrast to the 506 white people accepted on to history teacher training courses from the 1,937 who applied – a 26% success rate. The figures do not include applicants to the school direct training programme for top graduates with three or more years' career experience. A further 19 applicants from other ethnic minority groups, including Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi, were awarded places. The ethnicity of 17 successful applicants was unknown....