The chair of the Education Select Committee today defended the
actions of a school caught red-handed censoring history and
science textbooks, as well as abuse helpline information, and
accused Ofsted of going into religious schools with ‘a very heavy
hand’ and ‘without any understanding of the needs and beliefs of
faith communities.’
Questioning Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman during a virtual
meeting of the Education Select Committee, chair raised the case
of Yesodey
Hatorah Senior Girls' School, which was slammed by Ofsted for
blacking out pictures of Elizabeth I in history textbooks, as
part of a pattern of homophobic, misogynist, and anti-scientific
censorship applied to classroom materials. In a
speech to launch Ofsted’s annual report in January,
Spielman highlighted the example expressing concern that some
religious schools were ‘airbrushing women out of history’.
Mr Halfon said the school, who ‘felt the accusation was
incredibly untrue,’ had only blacked out a picture of Elizabeth
because ‘it was immodest’. Mr Halfon went on to say that the
school claimed there ‘were many other pictures of the queen and
other female leaders’ and that they do teach about them. However,
Ms Spielman stood firmly by the content of the report, saying the
materials showed ‘widespread censorship’ including an ‘entire
chapter’ on Elizabeth I that was ‘glued together’. In
2019, an
investigation by BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show also
found that Yesodey Hatorah had been encouraging the mass
withdrawal of pupils from Relationships and Sex Education (RSE).
Nevertheless, Mr Halfon repeatedly urged Ofsted to ‘open up a
dialogue’ with the school, appearing to accept the claim that
they have been ‘unfairly treated’.
Humanists UK – which has long campaigned for a fully inclusive
school system that is suitable for all children regardless of
background – expressed concern that the chair saw fit to defend
religious censorship in schools and that lines of questioning by
the chair and other committee members – including one on how
inspections of RSE could be ‘sensitive to the beliefs of faith
schools’ – appeared to suggest the inspectorate should hold
faith schools to different standards than other types of school.
During the session, MPs also posed questions about proposed new
powers to tackle unregistered schools which Ms Spielman said
showed the issue was finally being ‘taken with the seriousness it
deserves’. She nevertheless expressed concern about the extent to
which the coronavirus might hinder the progress of new laws
enabling Ofsted to investigate or close such settings.
Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson
said:
'All children have the right to a rigorous, broad, and balanced
education across all subjects, including science and history.
Ofsted has carried out its duties proportionately and has done a
good job of putting children first by holding to account those
schools which fail to meet basic standards. This includes
shocking instances where religious schools have censored out
evolution, or such things as the treatment of gay people in Nazi
Germany, or the role of women in history like Elizabeth I.
'Unfortunately, the select committee has a poor history of
holding religious schools and other religious providers to
account, and would seemingly prefer Ofsted to retract
well-evidenced reports of bad practice than guarantee an equal
standard of education to children in those schools. This is a
fundamentally wrongheaded approach and we would strongly urge
them to rethink their position.'
Notes:
Read our most recent article about Jewish
school with no English books in the library which barred pupils
from GCSE examinations
Read our piece on how Jewish
schools, including Yesoday Hatorah, encouraged mass withdrawal
from RSE
Read our article on a Policy
Exchange report urging Ofsted to let primaries ignore LGBT
people
Read our article about the 40% of
independent religious schools that fail to meet Ofsted
standards
Read more about our work on state-funded and private faith schools
