Free Our Schools
Almost all children now believe they go to school to pass exams. The idea that they may be there for an education is irrelevant. State schools have become exam factories, interested only in A to C Grades. They do not educate children. Exam results do not reflect a candidate’s innate ability. Employers have moaned for years that too many employees cannot read or write properly. According to a survey, school-leavers and even graduates lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. More and more companies are having to provide remedial training to new staff, who can’t write clear instructions, do simple maths, or solve problems. Both graduates and school-leavers were also criticised for their sloppy time-keeping, ignorance of basic customer service and lack of self-discipline.

Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum. More faith schools will be opened under sweeping reforms of the education system in England. There is a dire need for the growth of state funded Muslim schools to meet the growing needs and demands of the Muslim parents and children. Now the time has come that parents and community should take over the running of their local schools. Parent-run schools will give the diversity, the choice and the competition that the wealthy have in the private sector. Parents can perform a better job than the Local Authority because parents have a genuine vested interest. The Local Authority simply cannot be trusted.

The British Government is planning to make it easier to schools to “opt out” from the Local Authorities. Muslim children in state schools feel isolated and confused about who they are. This can cause dissatisfaction and lead them into criminality, and the lack of a true understanding of Islam can ultimately make them more susceptible to the teachings of fundamentalists like Christians during the middle ages and Jews in recent times in Palestine. Fundamentalism is nothing to do with Islam and Muslim; you are either a Muslim or a non-Muslim

Sorry, I think the British government had a stupid idea.
Public funding for SECULAR, PUBLIC schools only.

Kids can learn about religion at, you know, church.

Be aware the thread starter has form for trying to stirr up trouble.
I give no value to him/her and will not bother with the thread again.

Belly mate... it always seems to be the same theme too :)

But let's make use of this thread...

Have a look at this and see what you make of it ?

Cloward-Piven Strategy

Cheers..

Iftikhar
And your first paragraph started so well. School can sometimes be too focussed on exam results rather than education, creativity and encouraging questioning and lateral thinking.

What do you mean opt-out of the school system? There are already Muslim faith based schools in Australia just as there are Christian ones, but they all have to conform to a curriculum but there is some flexibility. There is also the option of home-schooling.

"Bilingual Muslims children have a right, as much as any other faith group, to be taught their culture, languages and faith alongside a mainstream curriculum."

Muslim children have the same access to public schools as any other faith group. A faith is not a culture - Islamic children come from many different cultures - Pakistani, Iranian, Indonesian and Malaysian just to name a few. Which culture and language are you going to teach?

Multiculturalism is about acceptance of all cultures, which is not served by encouraging segregated ghettos or the idea of separate nations within nations. (If that is what you are implying - I am unsure if it that is what you are implying by your post.)

The fact you see people only in terms of Muslim or Non-Muslim is a concern and hardly a positive sign of tolerance.

good thread, same respondents, strange responses. As the parent of three children attending government schools in this country i have to say what Iftikhar is saying is the biggest load of b**ls**t i have read in years.

Education in this country has moved dramatically away from exame based outcomes. Beside HSC which has eased off over the last decades. The increased stress for our students is rooted in the overwhelming expectations of parents who seem to think that their little Johnny is the next Stephan Hawking.

The main system we now use if you like is what they call evidence based assessment. This means that students are assessed on a body of work that is built over the year, not just exames. Also the scope and diversity that exists in the curriculum destroys the whole argument. Literacy levels have never been better, its just we never used to count the kids that left school at 8 - 14 years of age and worked as poverty stricken labourers for the rest of their lives.

If you want to discuss social welfare policy and playground development programs as areas of deficiency and underfunding then yes let's.
Oh, and all the muslim and religious undertones that are within. Really, they don't do the argument any good. Religion should be kept out of schools and stay where it belongs, in the church.

I only have praise for our schools, they are not perfect and can always improve as can we all. I see the work they do with my oldest daughter who has an intelectual disability and marvel. My sisters whom both Teach in the UK will refute completely the whole concept being put forward. The problems in the system over there (as is explained to me) is rooted in the inadequate training of staff who don't understand what teaching is and are ill prepared to cope with the realities of teaching a class of children.