Government drops plan to allow Muslim schools to police themselves
Government plans to give Muslim schools the chance to police themselves have effectively been dropped.
Under proposals unveiled earlier this year private Muslim schools were to be given the chance to carry out their own Ofsted-style inspections.
It was announced a new independent watchdog would be set up to be more "sensitive" toward Islamic education and the new body would also inspect a small number of independent Christian schools.
But now Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, has effectively vetoed the plan.
It follows warnings from Ofsted, the official schools inspectorate, that the move would cause "increased fragmentation" and "works against any consistent approach to national standards".
Under present legislation, most state and private schools are directly inspected by Ofsted.
But the Association of Muslim Schools and the Christian Schools' Trust applied to the Government to set up a separate inspectorate for a small number of private faith schools.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families approved outline plans for the so-called Bridge Schools' Inspectorate in January, giving it the power to inspect about 60 private Muslim schools and 50 Christian schools.
The decision came despite concerns that some private faith schools are already failing to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.
But in a parliamentary statement, Mr Balls admitted that the narrow focus of such small watchdogs may undermine public confidence in the education system.
He said any future inspectorates should be responsible for a minimum of 350 schools to prevent inspectors "becoming over-familiar" with particular types of school.
Christine Gilbert, head of Ofsted, said: "We believe it would be difficult for an organisation to form an objective view of the quality of schools inspected if it dealt with only one type of school and therefore lacked a broad perspective."
However, the changes will not affect the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which currently vets more than 1,000 leading fee-paying schools, including Eton and Harrow.
Michael Gove, Tory shadow schools secretary, said: "This is highly significant and very welcome u-turn by the Government.
"I am pleased that they have taken on board the need to improve the inspection regime and ensure that certain schools don't effectively police themselves."