Re: Teachers at Derby's Muslim school 'ordered to wear hijabs' Read more: http://www
I would argue that this is the case in so far as it concerns a great deal more than simply education.
Should the state assign Medical Supervisors to every family, to ensure that parents are feeding their kids "proper" foods, inoculating them on schedule, getting them plenty of exercise, bathing them properly and regularly, and getting swift professional care at the first sign of an illness or injury (because most parents aren't professionally qualified to, for example, differentiate between a bad dose of the flu and meningitis in its early stages)?
Where else are parents likely to "fail" that we can have the government come in and set things right "for the children"?
Random home inspections? Random Health & welfare inspections of vehicles on the roadway?
Slippery, slippery slope man.
None of that is what is being argued, the basic tenet is that any educational organisation that takes tax-payer money should justify it's existence through good practice and inspection of service. Free schools as proposed by the current government are supposed to have less oversight (Conservative belief in market forces for everything) and freedom to hire just who they like as teachers.
Another govt body went into this particular school and forced an immediate shutdown because the school inspected hadn't done basic police checks on whether any of the adults in the school had been CRB checked (to see if any teachers were paedophiles or sex offenders)
Where else are parents likely to "fail" that we can have the government come in and set things right "for the children"?
In this instance, free or charter schools are set up because local parents and organisations want a particular type of school for their children). That ended up with girls being treated as lesser citizens, poor educational practice and a dangerous lack of safety for the young children involved at the school.
You have to prove that they are not better and are in fact detrimental to justify legislative change.
I am well aware that parents like such schools and well off non religious parents will try and get their kids in because they are selective. Also most of our politicians will have been through such schools and there will be a large pressure group to maintain the status quo.
The issue as above is about use of public funds. Looking at pure issues of equality of educational opportunity - these schools have less poor children (the free school meals data is proof) than any similar school. They are also selective and will also have less disabled students for teachers to deal with.
This raises a wider question about best use of dwindling resources - ask any parent if they would like their kids to be at a highly selective school where exam results are very high and 99% will say yes. If that school is very homogeneous in parental income, type of student etc it's an easy class to teach. The teacher facing an inner city underfunded class with a large number of poor children and with disabled students faces a much tougher task.
Here's
another Islamic Faith School (this time an all girls school) - top exam results, 100% muslim and 93%% well off parents. Put the context of the community it sits in where only 70% of the local population are well off and the vast majority are white.
Is this serving the local community or just a small selection? Is this detrimental to the local community?
