Britain\u2019s primary school inspectors will question girls who wear the Muslim headscarf at school, the head of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and the chief inspector of schools, Amanda Spielman, said.
\nShe explained the move was to tackle situations in which wearing a hijab \u201ccould be interpreted as sexualisation\u201d of school children.
\nSpielman\u2019s announcement came as a recommendation to inspectors but the directive was not yet updated in the official handbook for inspectors. They are advised to record pupils\u2019 responses to questions such as why they wear the hijab to school.
\n\u201cWhile respecting parents\u2019 choice to bring up their children according to their cultural norms, creating an environment where primary school children are expected to wear the hijab could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls,\u201d Spielman said.
\n\u201cIn seeking to address these concerns, and in line with our current practice in terms of assessing whether the school promotes equality for their children, inspectors will talk to girls who wear such garments to ascertain why they do so in the school,\u201d she added.
\nSpielman met various anti-hijab campaigners after a survey by British newspaper Sunday Times suggested that nearly a fifth of 800 state primary schools, in 11 regions of England list the hijab as part of their uniform policy, mostly as an optional item.
\nHowever, the Muslim Council of Britain secretary-general, Harun Khan, responded to the move.
\n\u201cIt is deeply worrying that Ofsted has announced it will be specifically targeting and quizzing young Muslim girls who choose to wear the headscarf,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt sends a clear message to all British women who adopt this that they are second-class citizens, that while they are free to wear the headscarf, the establishment would prefer that they do not,\u201d Khan said.
\n\u201cIt is disappointing that this is becoming policy without even engaging with a diverse set of mainstream Muslim voices on the topic,\u201d he added.
\nKhan urged \u201cany parent or member of the public who has a concern about fundamentalist groups influencing school policy, or breaching equality law to make a complaint to the school.\u201d
\n\u201cIf schools do not act on these complaints they can be made to Ofsted directly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Britain\u2019s primary school inspectors will question girls who wear the Muslim headscarf at school, the head of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and the chief inspector of schools, Amanda Spielman, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n