Government is right to call time on failing schools

By Shahid Naqvi on Jun 10, 08 09:26 PM in Education

You've got to admire the Government. It's basically hung an axe over the head of 638 secondary schools it believes aren't doing well enough.
These schools now either need to shape up or face the consequences, which could include being shut down.

Of course, they're already queuing up to attack the move. Some will say it's picking on schools in the most challenging areas. Others will accuse the Government of stigmatising schools that are already struggling, contributing to their downward cycle.
But the Government doesn't care - it's going to plough ahead regardless. Like it did with tuition fees. City academies. Iraq.
And you have to ask what's the alternative with these schools? Ignore them? Keep throwing more and more money at them?
God forbid I appear an apologist for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (why can't it still be the education department!) but on this one, I think I agree with them.
State education in this country should be top notch, not second rate. Of course there are schools operating in extremely challenging areas with challenging pupils where it's harder to achieve good results.
But Schools Secretary Ed Balls is right to say that is no excuse. There are examples of schools in such circumstances that are achieving.
The measures announced yesterday seem a sensible way of helping this happen at more places. They include setting up a panel of experts with experience in turning round failure, and more one-to-one support for children in English and maths to help the under-performing so-called National Challenge schools pull themselves up.
When Ministers talk about closure in this context it does not mean children will be without a school, rather the school will be under new management, with a new name and structure - maybe as a city academy or a trust school.
If that helps turn them around, then that will be good for the pupils - even if it is a little unsettling for the staff. If they have the best interest of their children at heart then they should be behind it.
The National Union of Teachers' acting general secretary Christine Blower maintains "no head teacher or teacher mindful of their career will join a National Challenge school if they think it will be closed and turned into an academy in the following year".
Good. These schools don't need heads or teachers who are "mindful of their career" but those that are committed to helping children who most need it get a good education.
To New Labour's shame, the number of children living in poverty rose last year by 100,000 to a disgraceful 3.9 million.
To New Labour's credit, it has a clear and coherent approach to turning round failing secondaries, backed by money, resources, expertise and structural changes which may help end the cycle of under-achievement that leads to poverty.

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Iftikhar Ahmad said:

Muslim Schools

London School of Islamics is an educational Trust. Its aim is to make
British public, institutions and media aware of the needs and demands of the
Muslim community in the field of education and possible solutions.

Slough Islamic school Trust Slough had a seminar on Muslim
education and schools in Thames Valley Atheltic Centre. The seminar was
addressed by the education spokesman of MCB. I could not attend the seminar
but I believe lot of Muslims from Slough and surrounding areas must have
attended. Very soon, the Muslims of Slough will have a state funded Muslim
school but there is a need for more schools. A day will come when all Muslim
children will attend state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim
teachers as role model.

Muslim schools are not only faith schools but they are more or less
bilingual schools.

Bilingual Muslim children need to learn standard English to follow the
National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve
humanity. They need to be well versed in Arabic to recite and understand the
Holy Quran. They need to be well versed in Urdu and other community
languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of
their literature and poetry.

Bilingualism is an asset but the British schooling regards it as a
problem. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not
want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. Pakistan is only seven hours
from London and majority of British Muslims are from Pakistan.

More than third of British Muslim have no qualifications. British school
system has been failing large number of Muslims children for the last 60
years. Muslim scholars see the pursuit of knowledge as a duty, with the
Quran containing several verses to the rewards of learning. 33% of British
Muslims of working age have no qualifications and Muslims are also the least
likely to have degrees or equivalent qualifications. Most of estimated
500,000 Muslim school-aged pupils in England and Wales are educated in the
state system with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. Majority of them are
underachievers because they are at a wrong place at a wrong time.

Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual
Muslim teachers during their developmental periods. There is no place for a
non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. As far as higher education
is concerned, Muslim students can be educated with others. Let Muslim
community educate its own children so that they can develop their own
Islamic, cultural and linguistic identities and become usefull members of
the British society rather than becoming a buden.

We are living in an English speaking country and English is an
international language, therefore, we want our children to learn and be well
versed in standard English and at the same time well versed in Arabic, Urdu
and other community languages. Is there anything wrong with this approach?

It is not only the Muslim community who would like to send their children to
Muslim school. Sikh and Hindu communities have started setting up their
schools. Last week. British Black Community has planned the first all black
school with Black teachers in Birmingham.

Scotland's first state funded Muslim school could get the go-ahead within
months after First Munister Alex Salmond declared he was sympathetic towards
the needs and demands of the Muslim community.

Iftikhar Ahmad
London School of Islamics Trust
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

July 26, 2008 4:44 PM