“Undiscussables” in education are leading to the discrimination of girls, the chief inspector of Ofsted has said.
Appearing on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Amanda Spielman claimed a small minority of faith schools were “shutting down” what children were allowed to know.
Asked by Ms Ridge about “undiscussables” she had spoken of in the past, Ms Spielman said: “Because of our sensitivities about religion, culture and ethnicity, we’re very, very reluctant to say we’ve got some really tough issues where questions of religion and other types of rights bump into each other.”
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She gave the example of the “startling” redaction of chapters on the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from history books in a Jewish school in London. She also cited a state-funded Islamic school in Birmingham that was “theoretically for all children” where there is a “very, very rigid segregation that boys were always put ahead of girls for everything”.
The library had books that said men could beat their wives provided they didn’t leave a scar, and that women weren’t entitled to refuse sex with their husbands, said Ms Spielman.
She added: “There is a slide to shutting down what children are allowed to know. How can we make sure that everybody is prepared for adult life if we let schools get narrow and narrower in what they do?”
“How do we resolve that and how do we get to something that does recognise that at the end of the day this is about putting children first to become fully British citizens.
“We desperately need everybody to be a bit braver and calling things by their name and talking about what’s there.”
Ms Spielman also said national politicians were among those who needed to offer support to primary schools in the transition to the “difficult and contentious” issues in the new relationships education curriculum.
The new curriculum, in which primary schools are being “strongly recommended” by the Department for Education to teach about same-sex relationships, has already caused huge controversy among parents at schools in Birmingham.
And heads have warned that more backlash from parents is set to follow in other areas as the curriculum becomes mandatory in all schools from this September.
Ms Spielman said: “We should recognise that there is a real difficulty and real problem here that remarkably few people are willing to pick up and talk about.”
“I know that schools have absolutely felt unsupported and we leave the decisions to schools about what to teach and when. There is some government guidance but it’s pretty high level and, in practice, there is immense responsibility on the heads even of tiny primary schools to take on something that is really difficult and contentious in many communities now.”
She called on local politicians, councillors and MPs to offer support to schools as well as local authorities (for community schools) and multi-academy trusts.
