The director the Christian Institute has written to the secretary of state, Nicky Morgan, to raise his concerns that school inspectors and the Department for Education have ignored and failed to act on the well documented bullying of Christians in schools that had allegedly been taken over Islamists.
In the letter, seen by Breitbart London, Colin Hart points out that the damming official reports by Peter Clarke and Ian Kershaw into the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot to take over state schools in Birmingham listed numerous anti-Christian incidents dating back as far as 1996.
However, school inspection group Ofsted completely failed to pick up on the ongoing discrimination. “Clearly Christian pupils in those schools were being intimidated. Yet it appears to have gone on for years, undetected by Ofsted,” says Hart.
More concerning still, however: “Even after the Clarke and Kershaw reports highlighted some of the problems, Ofsted by accident or design neglected to mention them. And Sir Michael’s latest letter continues this pattern. Not once does it refer to the mistreatment of Christian pupils.”
Hart mentions several examples of bullying by Muslim teachers and pupils, including anti-Christian chanting in assemblies, teachers labelling Christian children ‘liars,’ students who chose to study Christianity in Religious Education being left to teach themselves, and Christmas carols being attacked.
“It is disturbing, therefore, that none of the Ofsted reports into any of these schools makes reference to these allegations, or to any specific action to address them,” says Hart.
Just this year, an Ofsted report on Park View school – which was revealed last week to have already reinstated some of the disgraced Islamist teachers – specifically mentions tackling homophobia, but not anti-Christian bigotry.
“All bullying is wrong, whatever the reason, whoever the perpetrator is, and whoever the victim. All pupils must be properly protected from it and it is wrong to elevate certain categories of victimisation above others,” the letter asserts.
Hart then extends his criticism to the actions of the inspectorate itself, which he claims has intimidated and marginalized Christians. He argues: “Ofsted’s system for detecting intolerance is clearly inadequate if it is not picking up on anti-Christian sentiment. In fact, Ofsted may be part of the problem.”
Hen mentions several cases he is aware of, such as the interrogation of pupils, some as young as six, where it was strongly implied they ought to believe in gay marriage. “Ofsted inspectors also seem to take a heavy-handed approach on the issue of transsexualism,” he writes, referencing a case in which a girl was asked if she knew of any girls who felt “trapped in the wrong body”. She was left wondering if the inspector was referring to her.
Furthermore, “Ofsted inspections as currently constituted never seem to discover mistreatment of Christian pupils by an unprofessional atheist teacher… Ofsted inspections need to be re-balanced,” he concludes.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “Bullying of any kind is unacceptable and all schools should take an active role in tackling it. Heads, teachers, governors and trustees are working tirelessly to resolve deep seated issues at these Birmingham schools which developed over a long period of time.”
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