Another brilliant multicultural idea
I think that we should allow students to grade their own essays? Because, really, who better to determine if the student has done a good job other than the student. For that matter, I don’t think I should have an annual performance review conducted by my boss and the Director of the Institute anymore. It would make far more sense for me to self regulate. And as for public health inspections – why don’t we just let the restaurants inspect themselves rather than maintaining a uniform system of inspection. Does all of this sound like rubbish to you? Then you are going to love the news that private Muslim schools have been given the right to police themselves by the Government (Dept for Children, Schools and Families). T
he story, reported in The Daily Telegraph (31 Jan 08), indicates that Muslim schools will be able to appoint their own Ofsted-style inspectors so that they can be more ‘sensitive’ to Islamic education. Under the decision 50 Christian schools will have similar powers. It is completely absurd. Education in the United Kingdom and any other advanced country should be regulated by the state. Standards should be ensured uniformly by the same inspectorate, not a bunch of self-appointed ‘inspectors’. Supposedly Ofsted will regulate the new inspectorate – so why not just regulate the schools.
With all the concern about fundamentalism these days and the quality of education more generally, it seems a bit off-key to allow schools (Christian, Muslim, Montessori, you name it) to self-regulate. It may seem to some that this is an effort to promote ‘multiculturalism’ but the fact of the matter is that is only promotes the further development of parallel cultures. This is not just about Muslims excluding themselves from society, it is also about the British turning their backs on Muslims. If the Government really cared about good religious education, they should be involved, not distant. It runs exactly counter to the Prime Minister’s desire to get British values back to the forefront.
The world loves to hate America, but interestingly enough the United States does not have a problem with its Muslim population that numbers about five million, roughly 2.5 times larger than the Muslim population of the UK. Sure fanatics might fly planes into American sky-scrapers, but none of them held US passports. American society is premised on the basis that there are certain values one must accept and those values are instilled in the young through education. The Muslim population in the US is much more contented than in the UK. No one cares what you speak at home or what religion you belong to, so long as the basic values are respected. Europe is scared to death of enforcing such an approach, but the fact of the matter is that multiculturalism has failed in Britain, it has failed in the Netherlands and it is failing across Europe. One would think that this Government and the Department for Children, Schools and Families would understand this.
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