MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - Five schools in Birmingham, placed into special measures this spring over concerns of hard-line Islamization, are seeing no significant improvement, British schools watchdog Ofsted said Tuesday.
"Her Majesty's Inspectors found that too much poor practice remained unchallenged during the summer term," Ofsted said in a letter to the British secretary of state for education, published on the organization's official website.
The letter presented a summary of findings of an unannounced inspection of the schools on September 8 to 12.
According to the document, it took the schools too long to appoint new governors, and in one of the schools "little had been done to discourage segregation and to encourage boys and girls to sit together in lessons and share opinions and ideas," while in another the religious education GCSE students have to teach themselves for options other than Islam.
The inspections followed the verdict, issued by Ofsted in June, regarding allegations of radical Muslims seizing control of the schools in Birmingham. The five schools, whose leadership was found inadequate, were asked to take more effective actions to promote fundamental British values and tolerance among children, and to ensure they have a balanced curriculum with regard to religious and social education.
According to a report by Birmingham City Council's Trojan Horse Review Group released in July, children and young people from ethnic minorities currently account for 60.6 percent of all children living in the Birmingham area, and the proportion of children who spoke English as a second language in the city's primary schools has surpassed 40 percent.
