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At about eight o\u2019clock on a dull autumnal morning, a mother is preparing breakfast for her young son in the kitchen of an unassuming private house on a little modern estate in Leicester. The doorbell rings. Outside, a series of people carriers and estate cars are rolling up one by one; out of them tumbling a succession of children in twos and threes, all in traditional Islamic dress. By 8.30, 26 children \u2013 some of them only just old enough for school, some almost grown \u2013 are sitting in tight rows on the floor of a little inner room, reciting morning prayers in Arabic and in English. By 9.30, the conservatory has become an infant classroom, the dining room has been taken over by the juniors and in the living room, year 7 and 8 girls are preparing to spread their geography projects across the laminate flooring.
By now, the mother has vanished \u2013 she doesn\u2019t want her name or address to be used, she says, because already families are turning up at odd hours asking to look round the \u201cschool\u201d \u2013 and Fatima D\u2019Oyen, director of Manara Education, has taken charge with her small team of staff.
There\u2019s no doubting that the Manara academy is a most unusual educational institution. But it\u2019s also part of a national trend. Although the number of Islamic schools is still small \u2013 around 140 at the latest count, just 12 of them state-funded \u2013 it is growing fast. About 60 of these schools have opened in the last 10 years; several in the last couple of months. And the demand from parents seems to be huge \u2013 one school in Birmingham recently attracted 1,500 applications for just 60 places. At least five Islamic schools have recently applied to be free schools, although so far only one has been approved.
Manara is one of two Islamic schools that have opened in Leicester this autumn \u2013 although in its case, the word \u201cschool\u201d can only be used loosely. Manara operates just three mornings a week, and its pupils are registered as home-educated.
Because Manara operates on a part-time basis, it does not need to register with the Department for Education as a school. But the rise in the number of Islamic schools has raised some concerns. Leicester City Council has called for national guidance to ensure that parents who send their children to \u201cflexi schools\u201d like Manara can be sure the staff have criminal record checks and their buildings are safe. And in some areas, full-time schools have opened without registration \u2013 meaning that there are no checks on the suitability of their staff or the quality of their curriculum.
D\u2019Oyen aims to open a fully registered, full-time school next year. Until recently, she was the headteacher of another Muslim school in Leicester, but left earlier this year \u2013 and decided to start her own school. She quickly found that the formalities required were much more cumbersome than in her native US, where she had previously helped to set up an Islamic school in New Mexico.
\u201cThe Department for Education wanted everything done six months in advance; they wanted a plan of the building, they wanted to come and inspect,\u201d she says. \u201cThey wanted to see our curriculum plans in detail \u2013 a lot of rigmarole. And we wanted to be open in September. So legally we are a private tuition service \u2013 like a supplementary school, but during the day.\u201d
Despite its unconventional setting \u2013 D\u2019Oyen was invited to tea with the family who live here and seized on the idea that the house could be turned into a school \u2013 the children seem contented and the curriculum varied. Manara is experimenting with Montessori teaching methods, and religious education includes moral and personal discussions as well as study of the Qur\u2019an. The time spent by many children learning the Qur\u2019an at madrasas \u2013 often 10 hours a week or more \u2013 can rob them of their childhood, D\u2019Oyen believes, and she hopes to provide a more humane alternative. The pupils will learn about gardening and alternative technologies, and have access to the garden, which is used as an outdoor classroom.
\u201cWe\u2019d like to teach a long morning, which would include some Islamic education, and then in the afternoons children would have more choice of activities \u2013 arts, crafts, PE,\u201d D\u2019Oyen says. \u201cWe want the children to have creativity in their lives, and to follow some of their interests.\u201d
She foresees no problems at all in finding pupils \u2013 another Islamic school in Leicester already has five applications for each place. The demand from Muslim parents for an education outside the mainstream is growing, she says.
Others in the Muslim world agree with her. Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, founder of the Muslim Institute thinktank, says there is a growing feeling among Muslim parents that mainstream schools are not serving their children well: \u201cIf schools are focused on raising standards and on ensuring that there is discipline, I think most people are happy with that,\u201d he says. \u201cBut more and more parents are concerned about the quality of education, and about discipline.\u201d
Yet in some areas, situations have arisen that have caused concern. A headteacher in the north of England, who asked not to be identified, described how an Islamic school had opened up two years ago without permission opposite her own primary school. \u201cIt operated for about six months without registration, and then it was forced to close. It didn\u2019t take long before it was registered and reopened again,\u201d she says. \u201cSome lovely ladies came to see me and they invited me and my deputy to see what was happening there. But I have to say I found the whole thing very worrying indeed \u2013 it\u2019s just so divisive.\u201d She had been trained as an Ofsted inspector, she said, and did not believe that the school would have been allowed to operate in the state sector. Its buildings, even after renovation, were unsuitable, she said, and its curriculum was too narrow, with every lesson being linked in some way to the Qur\u2019an or the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Association of Muslim Schools, set up 20 years ago to support a then-tiny band of institutions, acknowledges that in response to a growing demand for Islamic education, a number of full-time schools have opened without proper formalities.
\u201cThe Department for Education is in constant contact with us, and they do tell us if someone\u2019s operating without registration,\u201d says Shazad Mohammed, the director of the association. \u201cThen we visit to stress the importance of registering \u2013 the local authorities have to know where the children are, for safeguarding purposes. We strongly discourage this \u2013 it is illegal to operate without registration.\u201d
But it is hardly surprising that there should be some breaches, he adds \u2013 the UK has two and a half million Muslims, and the number is rising fast. The majority are aged between 13 and 25. One highly regarded Muslim school, the Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham, has introduced a lottery system to allocate places because up to 25 parents are competing for each one.
In Leicester, the city council says it is anticipating a rise in the number of \u201cflexi schools\u201d like Manara, and it has asked the government to address the issue. \u201cIt is anticipated that this form of education may become more common, and the local authority has asked that the Department for Education consider producing national guidance for parents and providers around the quality of provision, including criminal record checks, health and safety and planning permission,\u201d it said in a statement.
The DfE welcomed Leicester\u2019s commitment to working with home educators, but did not respond to requests for a comment on whether there should be more regulation of the sector.
But for Fatima D\u2019Oyen, the road ahead seems clear. Leicester\u2019s home education inspector paid her a visit this month, and was apparently impressed. Attempts to regulate the sector further would be counterproductive, she argues. \u201cMy perspective is that 95% of parents can be trusted to do what is best for their children,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t believe it is either possible or desirable to try to regulate, especially if the desire to do so comes from racism or misplaced paternalism. The reality is that most Muslims setting up or working at Islamic schools, whether part-time, full-time, supplementary or otherwise, do so out of a sense of altruism and wanting to help children get a good education.\u201d<\/p>\n