NASUWT comments on Education Select Committee Trojan Horse report
Commenting on the report published today by the Education Select Committee into the handling of the Trojan Horse allegations, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, said:
“The Select Committee report vindicates the stance taken by the NASUWT when the investigation reports were published.
“The Select Committee is right to express concerns about the way in which the investigations into these allegations were handled.
“The Select Committee is also right to question the role played by Ofsted.
“The rationale for the schools being inspected at that time by Ofsted, when other investigations were taking place, was questionable and the precise purpose and focus of the investigations was unclear.
“Pupils and staff in the affected schools and local communities were scapegoated and pilloried amid the feeding frenzy of leaked reports, rumour and speculation. The ongoing impact on pupils’ education in these schools and on the wider community has been immense.
“On the back of Peter Clarke’s fundamentally flawed report, the Coalition rushed through an ill-conceived and ill-defined requirement on schools to promote ‘British values’, which is causing division, uncertainty and confusion in schools and communities.
“Yet as the Committee has acknowledged, no evidence of radicalisation or extremism was found.
“What is abundantly clear, however, is the catalogue of failures by the Coalition Government to put in place effective checks, balances and controls in the current system to ensure that the public interest was safeguarded.”
Lena Davies
Press & Media Officer
NASUWT
0121 457 6250/07867 392746
lena.davies@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
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