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Muslim majority schools 'pose security threat and should be closed'
Last updated at 11:07am on 22.01.07
The concentration of ethnic minorities and religious groups in certain schools had created a 'strategic security problem'
An influential government education adviser said today that schools dominated by Muslim children should be closed and replaced with 'multi-faith' academies to integrate pupils.
Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said the concentration of ethnic minorities and religious groups in certain schools had created a 'strategic security problem'.
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He said that allowing significant numbers of ethnic minority children to lead virtually separate lives was fuelling extremism and harming academic standards.
The call for forced integration came as a Government commissioned report is this week set to recommend that values such as justice and tolerance should be at the centre of citizenship classes for secondary pupils.
The citizenship curriculum review by former headmaster and Home Office adviser Sir Keith Ajegbo is expected to conclude that more emphasis should be placed on British identity and more must be done to proved the 'essential glue' that holds society together.
The SSAT has identified 20 urban areas it says could benefit from the closure of comprehensives dominated by a particular ethnic group.
Sir Cyril said: "In some parts of the country, for example, where children only speak Bangla at home and do not mix with other communities at school, it has become a real strategic security problem.
"They would be much more likely to collaborate with the police and tell them [whether] people within their own community are doing things they shouldn't be doing if they were better integrated.
"Where you have two schools, one that is predominantly white and the other that is majority Bangladeshi or Pakistani, the answer is to close them both and put them together in a new academy operating on a multifaith basis."
Reader views (3)
Muslim Children need state funded Muslim Schools. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion all such schools shoud be designated as Muslim community schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models.
Muslim children need to learn standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. They need to learn Arabic Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and also to enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. They need to develop emotional literacy to satisfy their social, emotional and spiritual needs and demands.
- Iftikhar Ahmad, Forest gate London
This is disgraceful!
- S Thomas, London, UK
Sir Cyril Taylor is speaking common sense, if we really believe in a multi-cultural Britain we should all study together in the same schools, live as neighbours in the same streets and work in the same offices and factories.
- Derek, London
