08 January 2018

MP Preet Gill condemns plans to ask Muslim schoolgirls why they wear headscarves

A Birmingham MP has demanded school inspectors Ofsted scrap plans to ask schoolgirls why they wear the Hijab.

Edgbaston MP Preet Gill wrote to Education Secretary Justine Greening to say the proposal had “caused outrage among many of my constituents”.

It follows the announcement that inspectors will question Muslim primary school pupils with headscarves such as a hijab to ask why they wear it.

Ofsted and the Department for Education have required schools to teach and reflect British values since the “Trojan horse” affair in Birmingham in 2014, when an inquiry found there was a “co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained” campaign to introduce “an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos into a few schools” in the city.

Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted and chief inspector of schools, said in November that encouraging primary school children to wear the hijab “could be interpreted as sexualisation of young girls”. [Birmingham Mail] Read more