Birmingham city council is “a rotten borough . . . beyond redemption” whose powers to run schools and social services should be overhauled because children are at risk, according to the chief inspector of schools.
In his final interview before stepping down, Sir Michael Wilshaw said the “appalling children’s services” and “awful schools” in Britain’s second largest city had been his greatest cause of concern during his five years in office.
He warned that a repeat of the so-called Trojan Horse scandal, which saw a radical Islamic ethos introduced to schools in the city, was likely unless the government acted.
.... Wilshaw said Birmingham had the most worrying cases of segregation of the type identified in a recent report by Dame Louise Casey, the government’s social cohesion tsar. Nine of 21 schools in the east of the city where all the pupils are from ethnic minorities had been rated “less than good” in their latest Ofsted inspections. The average nationally is 11%. [The Times (£)] Read more
