UK s largest teaching Union warned against banning hijab

LONDON – The UK’s largest teaching union on Saturday warned againstpressuring schools into banning hijab for very young girls for fear ofincreasing backlash from the local communities. The National EducationUnion (NEU), which is debating the issue at a meeting in Brighton over theweekend, criticised the country’s schools watchdog for interfering in thematter.

The chief of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services andSkills (Ofsted) Amanda Spielman has spoken out about her concerns overMuslim girls as young as five wearing the headscarf and suggested thatschool inspectors explore why they are doing so.

“I think it is a problem that Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty’s chiefinspector [of schools], speaks out on this in a way which I think isfrankly very political,” said Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretaryof the NEU, at the opening of the NEU’s annual conference yesterday.

“People feeling so much pressure from Ofsted, our worry is that instead ofconsultation we will find schools saying: we are going to ban the hijab.And we think that would be very damaging to community relations. It’s not asensible place to go, so our guidance will be about how you have dialogue,respectful dialogue and dialogue based on love for one another,” he said.

Courtney said that new guidance from the union would be issued to schoolson developing uniform policies, making clear that headteachers should nottake the decision but needed to reach an agreement with the local community.

The comments come in the wake of controversy around St Stephen’s School ineast London’s attempt to ban the hijab for very young girls. It led tocomplaints of bullying of the school’s staff, including Indian-originprincipal Neena Lall, and Spielman came out in support of Lall.

But after heavy opposition from community leaders and abusive comments onsocial media, Lall was forced to withdraw the ban earlier this year.

Spielman had earlier announced that Ofsted inspectors would ask youngpupils themselves why they wore the hijab in an attempt to build a widerpicture.

“That individual Ofsted inspectors would ask individual Muslim girls whythey were wearing the hijab, and then to imply that they were wearing thehijab because they had been sexualised, indicates somebody who isn’t intouch with Muslim communities at all,” Courtney said, as he tabled a motionto be debated by the NEU.

The motion states that Spielman’s statements “have ramifications beyond theschool gates and must be seen in the context of increased attacks on theMuslim community and particular stereotypes about Muslim girls and Muslimwomen”.

Ofsted branded the NEU’s comments “disappointing”.