Following the revelations that many Islamic schools in Britain are teaching hatred of non-Muslims, and that clerics in “mainstream” mosques are preaching jihad, we learn today that more than half of the Muslim schools in the UK are not even inspected.
More than half of private Muslim schools have not been inspected for five years, while some have not received a full inspection for a decade.
An analysis of the 114 independent Islamic schools in England registered with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has found that Ofsted reports are available for only 53. Most of these involve recent visits, but two reports are for the 1997-98 academic year.
Most of the other 61 schools, and their 6,000 pupils, were inspected five or more years ago but, because of a gap in the law, their reports have never been made public. The law has now been changed, but is not retrospective.
Seventeen schools have no listing on the website of Ofsted - the official inspection body - making it impossible to establish whether they have ever been visited.
News of the apparent gaps in monitoring comes as questions are being raised about whether some Muslim schools are adequately preparing children for life in Britain. The Government recently closed an Islamic school in East Sussex, which was raided by police as part of an anti-terror operation, because it did not meet registration standards.
Last month, King Fahad Academy, a west London school funded by the Saudi government, was condemned for using text books that described Jews as "pigs".
Muslim parents are increasingly choosing the private sector because they feel the state sector does not cater for their children.
Last month, the Muslim Council of Britain accused state schools of failing to respect Muslim wishes and called on headmasters to open prayer rooms, introduce single changing cubicles, overhaul sex education and reschedule exams outside Ramadan.
A report by the Open Society Institute says there has been a threefold increase in the number of private Muslim schools in Britain in the past 10 years. They now educate three per cent of Britain's 400,000 Muslim pupils. An ICM poll of British Muslims in 2004 showed nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. Islamic schools on the DfES register are funded -privately, through the support of local mosques, other private funding and fees - of up to several thousand pounds a year - paid by parents. A number are registered as charities.
Like all the 2,000 independent schools in England registered with the DfES, they are not required to follow the national curriculum. They often devote a lot of time to Islamic studies.
A number of Ofsted reports are critical of poor buildings, inadequate resources, poor management, unqualified teachers and the low level of general education in some Muslim schools.
There are currently seven state-funded Muslim schools with three more in the pipeline. Ministers believe that if the schools are brought into the state system, they will be monitored more closely and have to follow the national curriculum.
David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, said: "All schools, whether state sector, independent sector or faith schools, are subject to the Ofsted inspection regime. It is not acceptable that a -significant number in a particular category, namely independent Muslim schools, appear to be escaping the rigour of the inspection regime."
Mohamad Mukadam, the chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, said: "Ofsted has the power to inspect independent schools and has not found anything that should worry people about Muslim schools.
"To judge our schools we need to look at the young people that are coming out of them and compare them with those -coming out of the comprehensive system. There is a marked improvement in the academic results being achieved in Muslim schools, a higher amount of young people progressing to higher education, and a far higher proportion going on to work in the professions."
An Ofsted official said: "Since the introduction of the Education Regulations 2003, there has been a cycle for the inspection of all -independent schools who are not members of the Independent Schools Council and covered by their inspectorate.
"Ofsted has not yet completed the first full cycle of reported inspections, but it will be completed by the end of March 2008." If a school had no published report it had not yet had a full reported inspection, but would have one in the next year.
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