Unregulated schools are a breeding ground for terrorism, a senior British official has warned as the government faced continuing questions over its ability to crack down on extremist mosque-run madrassas.
Isolated communities within the UK posed the greatest threat of incubating terrorism, said the country’s counter-terrorism police coordinator Neil Basu. After four major attacks in the UK in 2017, he said that authorities were shifting their focus to the “threat in our midst” after stemming the flow of disaffected young Britons to fight in Syria. “Segregated and isolated communities, unregulated and home schooling are a breeding ground for extremism and future terrorism…” the officer said.
A government-commissioned report found evidence of “coordinated, deliberate and sustained action… to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos” in schools. It found that some of those at the centre of the dispute were involved in out-of-school educational centres.
Separately, education inspectors set up a unit in January 2016 to identify schools operating illegally – including unregistered Islamic madrassas – which have resulted in 38 being handed warning notices and ordered to change their practices or face closure. Ten of them had a religious character. The unit has identified 291 schools operating illegally…, which includes institutions promoting Islamic, Christian and Jewish values, but with few checks on the activities of teachers and governing authorities.
Schools only have to register with the authorities if they offer full-time education for more than five students. Schools operating illegally have been found to run “part-time” classes for more than about 18 hours a week, and effectively become the full-time education provider for its students.
Senior officials had been calling on the government in 2015 to do more to protect the estimated 6,000 children in unregistered schools. The government is yet to respond to a consultation on plans to register and inspect out-of-school educational centres.
Khalid Mahmood, the opposition Labour MP for a Birmingham constituency, said background checks on religious teachers should be mandatory.
The current head of the inspection regime, Amanda Spielman, said “Teaching the young about British values is critical to developing that resilience,” she said in a speech in June. “And by that, I do not mean superficial displays or tick box exercises…”
Islamic extremism is creating the emphasis on regulating home schools, which would certainly include Christian home schools. The time is now when Christian parents who want their children in home school, to avoid the cultural corruptions being taught in public schools, will be seen as isolating them and radicalizing them. This applies not just to Britain, but also other western countries, like Australia, Canada, and the United States where homeschooling is widely practiced. One wonders whether it is wise to start families in these last moments of earth’s history.
“When we reach the standard that the Lord would have us reach, worldlings will regard Seventh-day Adventists as odd, singular, strait-laced extremists.” Fundamentals of Education, page 289.