BRITISH VALUES?

'Ofsted report into alleged Trojan Horse plot at Birmingham schools finds "culture of fear and intimidation has developed" in schools after David Cameron wades in over Michael Gove and Theresa May row' Daily Telegraph.
Michael Gove


You didn't need a crystal ball to foretell that something like the so called ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal in Birmingham schools was pretty nigh on inevitable.[1] The cosy political consensus on the value of ‘faith’ schools and the view that religion is a force for good in society in general and in the education system in particular, set in train by Tony Blair, was a recipe for the perfect storm that we have now had in Birmingham.
No wonder the governors are bewildered, there they were just a few months back getting a pat on the back by Ofsted and told what sterling work they were doing, only now they find themselves excoriated for doing what they thought they had been given the green light to do. Nobody then seemed to be concerned about visits to Saudi Arabia for the Muslim students,[2] the call to prayer over the schools PA system, or books in the library of a primary schools explaining the important role of stoning in Islamic jurisprudence. True these were not so called ‘faith’ schools where religious indoctrination is permitted, but the messages they had received had been they were doing just dandy, providing the sort of education the local community wanted. Even when complaints were made these were batted away insouciantly. Now they suddenly find themselves vilified.
True the school inspectors and local education official too thought they were doing what was expected of them, that they were supporting the blooming of multi-cultural diversity, only to find themselves like Captain Rene in Casablanca shocked, shocked to find such things going on when the activities carried out in Park View Academy was exposed to the full light of day.
The pig’s ear that is education policy in this country lies at the heart of this disaster, which looks certain to alienate significant numbers of local parents and further entrench Islamic paranoia. Local schools, free schools, academies, a national curriculum that some schools are allowed to take a la carte, have all led to this disaster and we now find ministers scrambling to disentangle the web of confusion they have created. Whilst, as Fiona Phillips points out in an excellent article, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/10/trojan-horse-academy-schools, ‘Labour, having started the whole academies experiment, albeit only with several hundred schools, is unable to publicly admit that the policy was a mistake although the recent review of the local authority role in education carried out for Labour by former education secretary David Blunkett was an admission that it is now out of control.’
For me however the heart of the problem in Birmingham lies in the encouragement politicians of all stripes have given for religion to provide an ever greater role in the provision of education. Already providing Jewish, Catholic, and Church of England schools the state was in no position to resist the demand to provide equivalent schools for the Muslim community. In fact it acquiesced to the demand with enthusiasm. Religious indoctrination provided at taxpayers’ expense.
Let me be clear, in my view religious teaching should play no part in the state education system, except when providing a space for studying all regions and role of agnosticism and unbelief.
Now we have the blundering Education Secretary, Michael Gove, burbling on about the need of schools to teach something called ‘British Values.’
Now I don’t know what ‘British Values,’ are, however if by this Gove means tolerance, respect for others beliefs and free speech, I'm all in favour, however it is preposterous to suggest that Britain enjoys a monopoly of these values. [3]
What I do know about are the values propagated by the Enlightenment and the role played by secularism in creating a tolerant and open society. Can I suggest that these be the values that are taught?



[2] One wonders whether they managed to squeeze in a visit to a public stoning?  I do not know the full details of this trip but I would bet my life savings that it was paid for by the Saudi government. This raises the extremely serious issue of ongoing funding by the Government of the Kingdom for a whole variety of institutions in this country, all espousing the extreme Wahhabi variant of Islam.
[3] The British have done some extraordinarily unpleasant things over the years, not least in Ireland. Try asking in the Republic about British Values and you are likely to receive a somewhat less generous evaluation than exists in Mr Gove’s imagination.

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