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Moral Maze

The Morality of Faith Schools

Moral Maze

BBC

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.5609 Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A long-running legal battle between Ofsted and the Al-Hijrah Islamic state school in Birmingham has reached the Court of Appeal. The principle at stake is whether segregating boys and girls - for all classes, breaks and trips - amounts to unlawful sex discrimination in a mixed-sex setting. Ofsted's lawyers argue that it is "a kind of apartheid", leaving girls "unprepared for life in modern Britain". The school maintains that gender segregation is one of its defining characteristics and that the policy is clear - parents can make an informed choice. The case is based on the Equality Act, which means the implications of the ruling will be far-reaching and will apply to all schools, not just state schools. Should gender segregation be allowed in co-educational faith schools? If it is as abhorrent as segregating children according to their race, why is the great British tradition of single-sex education not the subject of similar scrutiny? The case also raises wider moral concerns about what we as a society will allow to go on in faith schools, whether they are publicly-funded or not. Is the promotion of one dominant world view - taught as "truth" - desirable? Are faith schools a vital component of multiculturalism or a threat to it? Should a truly integrated society be judged on the diversity within its schools, lest they become cultural or religious ghettos? To do away with faith-based education entirely would be to do away with some of the best and most over-subscribed schools in the country. Would that be a price worth paying for a more cohesive society, or a monstrous display of religious intolerance? The morality of faith schools. Witnesses are Afua Hirsch, Prof Anthony O'Hear, Iram Ramzan and Asad Zaman. Producer: Dan Tierney.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to a program from BBC Radio 4.

0:03.9

Good evening. By any standards, the Al-Hidra Muslim Faith School in Birmingham has problems.

0:09.2

According to its latest Ofsted inspection report, the pupils aren't safe, the playground is chaotic, the pupils openly rude to the staff, the teaching's inconsistent and the school management's out of touch.

0:20.2

It's in special measures and the government's ordered an independent Academy Trust to take over.

0:25.3

But what particularly concerns Ofsted is the way the school segregates the sexes completely from Year 5,

0:32.5

not just in lessons, but it breaks, in school clubs, on school trips.

0:37.3

Ofsted says this is not just wrong.

0:39.5

It calls it a kind of apartheid and says it's damaging for girls, but illegal under the

0:44.5

Equality Act.

0:45.6

There's been a long-running court case and the appeal court will shortly issue a judgment

0:49.5

with wide-ranging implications for schools elsewhere.

0:53.0

The immediate question is whether segregating children within a school is a bad thing,

0:58.1

especially if it's still considered acceptable to have schools that only teach a single sex.

1:03.2

There's a wider issue about faith schools themselves.

1:06.2

Many are educationally excellent, have an ethical context many feel is missing from secular schools,

1:11.7

contribute to diversity in education and multiculturalism generally. But they're also seen as

1:16.7

promoting a single dogmatic worldview that some secularists would say is based on

1:21.7

superstition, that they encourage intolerance and are inherently divisive for society.

1:27.5

The morality of faith schools.

1:29.6

Our panel, trundling up the track for a welcome return,

1:32.6

the former Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo,

1:35.3

Melanie Phillips, social commentator on the Times,

...

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