The head of the UK's education watchdog is calling on head teachers not to be afraid of causing offence and tackle religious extremists who use schools to indoctrinate children.
In a strongly worded criticism of religious communities wanting to limit education opportunities, Amanda Spielman will outline in a speech on Thursday (1 February) her concern that some schools are being used by to espouse, in the worst cases, "extremist ideology".
"Ofsted inspectors are increasingly brought into contact with those who want to actively pervert the purpose of education," she will say.
"Under the pretext of religious belief, they use education institutions, legal and illegal, to narrow young people's horizons, to isolate and segregate, and in the worst cases to indoctrinate impressionable minds with extremist ideology."
Spielman is backing Neena Lall, the head of the UK's top state primary school, St Stephen's in Newham, east London, who banned younger pupils from Ramadan fasting in school hours and girls under eight from wearing the hijab in class. [International Business Times] Read more
