This year, the government announced a range of measures to combat extremism in schools. This was in response to the “Trojan Horse” scandal in Birmingham, when schools were found to be teaching a narrow curriculum based on Islam (for more background, read this report from the current New Humanist).
The new guidance hinges on the idea that all schools must promote “British values”. Any schools that fail to follow the new rules will be judged inadequate and could face closure. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has already been controversial. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of the schools inspection body Ofsted, has said that any school suspected of not teaching a broad and balanced curriculum, or of not preparing children for life in modern Britain, could face no-notice inspections.
Although the guidance does not exclusively apply to faith schools (the Trojan Horse schools were theoretically secular state schools), this is where the main impact has been felt. There have already been 40 such inspections, including of Christian and Jewish faith schools. Many subjected to no-notice inspections have accused inspectors of heavy-handedness. Some – including Beis Yaakov, a Jewish girls’ school in Salford – have been placed in special measures. Schools have been censured for failing to celebrate festival of other faiths, not giving sex education lessons, and not teaching tolerance of homosexuality.
This last point has been particularly contentious. The Sunday Times reported this weekend that the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, was ordering faith schools to teach gay rights, prompting the Department for Education to issue a hasty rebuttal. The department tweeted: “Nonsense to say schools 'must teach gay rights'. We want schools to teach broad curric based on British values.” In turn, the phrasing triggered criticism from Labour for its implication that gay rights are not an intrinsic part of British values.
Putting the exact wording aside, the debate over gay rights in faith schools does highlight a crucial change from previous schools’ guidance. The new rules, for the first time, give inspectors the power to downgrade schools where teachers are breaching the Equality Act – which encourages respect for other religions and races, as well as for lesbian, gay, and transgender people.
The DofE later elaborated (also on Twitter):
“It is complete nonsense to say that schools are being forced to ‘teach gay rights’ against their will.
“Ofsted are rightly ensuring that schools do not indoctrinate pupils about gay people – or any other people – being inferior. The same goes for schools that do things like make girls sit separately at the back of the class. Both are practices which go directly against the fundamental British values of tolerance and respect.
“We believe schools should prepare all pupils for life in modern Britain. A broad and balanced curriculum is vital for this.”
