29th October 2014 10:00
By Blue Tutors
New Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has said that schools should be urged to promote “fundamental British values” to their students, in order to prevent “different ideologies” from making their way into schools. Referring to the recent scandal over extremism in English schools, the education secretary said that promoting British values would be a key strategy in combating what she referred to as the “concerted and coordinated” efforts of hard-line Islamists to bring their ideology into schools. She argued that the values taught in schools should promote mutual respect, and address issues of equality between girls and boys. She called for the fundamental values of democracy to be woven into the curriculum.
Building on the work of the former education secretary Michael Gove, Ms Morgan has pushed for legislation which would require schools to actively promote core values in addition to simply respecting them. Academies are already required to teach British values as part of their funding agreement, and the education secretary is now investigating the possibility of coming to an arrangement whereby British values would be taught in local authority maintained schools as well. Calling for a “cultural change”, Ms Morgan said that individuals who attempted to subvert British values should be identified and removed from the system.
As part of the response to extremism in schools, Ofsted has recommended the replacement of school governing boards and leadership teams. Disciplinary procedures against teachers thought to be supporting extremism have also been implemented in the effort to tackle so called ‘trojan horse schools’. In her speech Ms Morgan said that there was much to be learned from the affair, and said that schools inspectors should be trained to spot areas at risk of radicalisation. Ofsted inspectors will now be expected to check that the government’s core British values are being adhered to in schools, and to identify schools which are at risk from extremists.