Following the much-awaited publication of a series of inspection reports into the status of 21 Birmingham state schools, education secretary Michael Gove announced that the government will henceforth require all primary and secondary schools in the United Kingdom to “promote British values.”
The re-inspection of these schools by Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) was ordered by Mr. Gove this March in the wake of an anonymous letter alleging a “Trojan Horse” plot by Islamic extremists to take over Muslim majority schools in Birmingham.
The importance that the government attaches to the schools controversy, on which there was a discussion in the House of Commons yesterday, is so great that even before the inspection reports were released Prime Minister David Cameron ordered a system of surprise inspections to be conducted on schools.
Snap inspections
Mr. Cameron said that snap inspections would leave school managements with no time to cover up their nefarious agendas when unwitting school inspectors come visiting – which is allegedly what is now happening.
The issue even managed to cause a minor political explosion in the cabinet, with Education Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Theresa May accusing each other of inaction on the issue of tackling extremism. A furious Mr. Cameron stepped in to bring the sparring to a halt. Mr. Gove was made to apologise, and Ms May’s special advisor Fiona Cunningham was asked to quit.
The Islamic-extremism-in-schools controversy has been hogging the headlines in recent months, with specific schools being accused of gender segregation, forced religious instruction, and extremist proselytizing.
The Ofsted inspection reports, published on its website, do not however suggest such a state of affairs in the schools. An impartial reader realizes that far from being hotbeds of extremism, these schools have bright students and eager parents both committed to academic excellence. While there are instances of religiously motivated actions cited in the reports, they are very few in number and are contested by managements. The reports do not present a picture of widespread Islamic force-feeding.
For example, Oldknow Academy and Park View School Academy of Mathematics and Science are schools that are allegedly at the heart of the Islamic takeover plot.
Park View was rated ‘outstanding’ in a school inspection this March. It has now been downgraded to ‘inadequate’ the lowest of four grading levels. While the quality of students and the quality of teaching is marked as “good” and even “outstanding”, the report does not say just how extremism is being encouraged. “The school is not doing enough to keep students safe, including raising students’ awareness of the risks of extremism,” it says, without the specifics of what the school should be doing but is not.
The school managements, parents, teachers and former teachers, and even former education officials have described the clamp-down as politically motivated. A “hands-off Birmingham schools” campaign, headed by former Respect leader and city-councillor Salma Yaqoob has been formed in Birmingham. The Ofsted reports and the response of the government are expected to have a long-lasting impact on educational aspirations and race relations in Birmingham.
