Ofsted chief warns over Islamic schools

Education watchdog Ofsted warned today about the threat posed by the growing number of private Islamic schools.

Some are not teaching children to be tolerant of unbelievers, said chief schools inspector David Bell.

He urged the Government to keep an eye on faith schools. The risks involved in failure to do so could be high, he said.

Mr Bell delivered his comments in a speech on the teaching of citizenship to the Hansard Society.

His remarks will reopen the debate about faith schools, which erupted in the wake of the race riots in northern cities in 2001 and gained fresh urgency in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.

Reports subsequently warned of the increasing segregation of white and Asian communities, allowing ignorance and racism to flourish.

It is important to promote national "coherence" as well as diversity, Mr Bell said.

Ofsted's annual report, to be published next month, will show a sharp rise in the number of private-faith schools. Because they are independent they do not have to comply with the national curriculum in the same way as schools that receive state funding.

There are now 100 private Muslim schools and the same number operated by evangelical Christians. There are also more than 50 Jewish schools, he said. It is a human right for parents to be able to choose this kind of school, he stressed. "Yet, on the other hand, faith should not be blind," he said.

"I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society."

He quoted from the forthcoming Ofsted report: "Many schools must adapt their curriculum to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England and helps them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony."

Mr Bell added: "This growth in faith schools needs to be monitored by government to ensure that

pupils at all schools receive an understanding of not only their own faith but of other faiths and the wider tenets of British society."

He went on: "An awareness of our common heritage as British citizens, equal under the law, should enable us to assert with confidence that we are intolerant of intolerance, illiberalism and attitudes and values that demean the place of certain sections of our community, be they women or people living in non-traditional relationships."

He also urged more state school pupils to become Armed Forces cadets to promote the value of " service". "It's important that all young people with leadership potential benefit from the kinds of opportunities which, at present, tend to be restricted to independent schools which run combined cadet forces.

"After all, tomorrow's leaders are as likely to come from the playgrounds of Enfield as they are the playing fields of Eton," he said.

He said 70 per cent of young people never did voluntary work and he urged schools to improve citizenship classes - the worsttaught subject in secondary schools, Ofsted has said.