'An Islamic girls' school top of the tables?' by Jack Straw

You might expect Priory Academy, Lincoln, or Watford Grammar School for Boys to be top of the tree for their exam results. But Tauheedul Islam Girls High School, Blackburn? Third-best in the country with 98 per cent of pupils getting five or more good GCSEs including maths and English. What’s going on? The school is not in a leafy suburb, but in confined premises in the heart of Blackburn’s inner-urban mill terraces. Tauheedul began as a private school 25 years ago and did well.

But I had argued for years in opposition that if the country had Catholic, Anglican and Jewish faith schools then we either had to get rid of them all (bad idea) or to allow schools from all faiths to become state aided, provided they met the same criteria.  Tauheedul became a state-funded voluntary-aided school three years ago — and it has really taken off. What’s its secret? There is no secret. Instead, as its chairman of governors, Kam Kothia, puts it, it has “a perfect combination — committed parents, committed students and, crucially, personalised learning.”

So all students are assessed when they arrive in Year Seven and a strategy is established to help them to achieve the best results possible.  Yes, the faith of the school does makes a big difference. An Ofsted report in 2006 praised not only its outstanding academic achievement but its spiritual and moral ethos. “The commitment to excellence and the values of Islam, which are at the heart of the school, shine out in many ways,” it said.

This should come as no surprise — Catholic, Anglican and Jewish schools generally perform better than non-faith schools. But Tauheedul is not introspective. It is designated as a specialist humanities school, with citizenship as its lead subject. I have seen for myself how its pupils really are engaged and interested in the outside world. The other component in Tauheedul’s success is that it is an all-girls school. As every parent knows, while boys tend to do better in mixed schools, girls tend to do better when learning with other girls. The high achievement does not stop at the school gates. In 2007 more than 95 per cent of Year 11 students at Tauheedul went on to further education, most of them taking A levels. This is much higher than the average for other schools in Blackburn.

The old saw is that Asian parents are not committed to the academic success of their daughters. The success of this school proves exactly the opposite.

Jack Straw is Justice Secretary and Labour MP for Blackburn

(Source: The Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6988700.ece)