Press Release: Andrew Gilligan's article in the Sunday Telegraph, 'Ofsted praises Islamic schools which oppose Western lifestyle', is a mixture of xenophobia and inaccuracies.
8 Nov 2010
Writing for the Telegraph Andrew Gilligan has stitched together an "article" that is light on facts and heavy on inaccuracies. Numerous unsubstantiated allegations and accusations are made and Gilligan uses the style most recognize of him when talking about established mainstream Muslim organizations, primarily using sentences made up of noun + verb + Islamist.Instead of seeing the Bridge Schools Inspectorate as a groundbreaking initiative in Community Cohesion where Christian and Muslim inspectors inspect independent schools together under the Ofsted framework Gilligan derides it as favouritism. Monitored by Ofsted the Bridge Schools Inspectorate is unique in that it inspects independent Muslim and Christian Schools with trained inspectors from both faith backgrounds and is monitored by Ofsted, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools Christine Gilbert commented;
“Ofsted judged all seven of the Bridge Schools Inspectorate inspections to be of good quality.”
In March 2009 the then Secretary of State for Education, Ed Balls commissioned a survey into the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development of pupils in independent in faith schools. Commenting on the findings of the survey in October 2009 Ed Balls said:
“Ofsted has today published the results of the survey. It found that practice in all of the 51 schools visited was at least good with pupils demonstrating a strong sense of identity and belonging to their faith, their school and to Britain; and with a clear commitment to promoting the values of good citizenship.” One of the key findings of the survey was that; All the schools visited taught explicitly that good citizenship was a requirement of a good believer. As a result, pupils felt they belonged, as British citizens, to this country. [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Documents-by-type/Thematic-reports/Independent-faith-schools]
Two of the schools named by Gilligan in his article, Tawhid Boys School and Madani Secondary Girls School in East London were visited by Ofsted during the aforementioned survey putting paid to his allegations. Commenting on Gilligan’s article AMS Chairman Amjad Ahmed said;
“Muslim schools should be proud of their achievements and continue the great work they do in contributing to modern British society whilst ignoring those that wish to sow disunity between the different faiths and communities of the UK.”
ENDS
The Association of Muslim Schools UK is the UK’s Muslim schools umbrella body with around 100 affiliated schools and madrasahs.
For further information please contact AMS Chairman Amjad Ahmed.
AMS UK
PO BOX 14109
Birmingham
B6 9BN
Tel: 08444 820 407
Email:
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Website: www.ams-uk.org