Free Schools

[Iftikhar]

Free 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.

There are hundreds of state primary and secondary schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion all such schools may be opted out to become Muslim Academies. This mean the Muslim children will get a decent education. Muslim schools turned out balanced citizens, more tolerant of others and less likely to succumb to criminality or extremism. Muslim schools give young people confidence in who they are and an understanding of Islam’s teaching of tolerance and respect which prepares them for a positive and fulfilling role in society. Muslim schools are attractive to Muslim parents because they have better discipline and teaching Islamic values. Children like discipline, structure and boundaries. Bilingual Muslim children need Bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods, who understand their needs and demands.

None of the British Muslims convicted following the riots in Bradford and Oldham in 2001 or any of those linked to the London bombings had been to Islamic schools. An American Think Tank studied the educational back ground of 300 Jihadists; none of them were educated in Pakistani Madrasas. They were all Western educated by non-Muslim teachers. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. A Cambridge University study found that single-sex classes could make a big difference for boys. They perform better in single-sex classes. The research is promising because male students in the study saw noticeable gains in the grades. The study confirms the Islamic notion that academic achievement is better in single-sex classes.
Iftikhar Ahmad
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

[Jonathan]

Faith schools should not be state funded. Just as I would argue against a Christian school who will not take a muslim child being state funded, it is only fair that I also argue against a muslim school not taking catholics being state funded.

Your suggestions are ludicrious and based on a misreading of the situation. What you propose only serves to futher enhance isolation, hatred and misuderstanding. Segregating Muslims away is not the answer.
If muslims want schools, by all means. But asking the taxpayer to fund such schools when they are discriminatory in manner is simply not right and not fair. Balance, openness and integration is the way forward. That is the way to spread Islam. Isolation and hiding away in Muslim schools is not the answer. It is a knee jerk and narrow minded response.

[Iftikhar]

Muslim immigrants with kids, find it quite difficult to let their kids learn about their culture. It is true that state and church schools will make them easier to adapt with their environment, but you might be surprised with the bad effect of Western culture that is 180 degrees different than your own culture. For example, if you teach your kids to obey their parents as the culture you bring from your origin, your kids will learn the opposite at their school. The freedom of expressing their feeling among Western family has made them take it in the wrong way. Your kids which havent able to name which one is right and which one is wrong will swallow the examples they get from their school and implements it in the daily life.

Bilingual Muslim children need bilingaul Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. The reason Muslim children are in majority in such schools becuase native parents remove their children when they find the number of Muslim children is on the increase. It is native parents who do not want their children to mix with Muslim children.

According to ISM Poll, almost half of the Muslims wish to send to Muslim-only schools. There are 166 Muslim schools and only 11 are state funded I would like to see each and every Muslim child in a state funded Muslim school. It will not add even a single penny more to British tax-payers
It is not only Muslim parents who want state funded Muslim schools for their children. Now Hindu community has set up a state funded Hindu school in Harrow and next year it is planning to set up in Leicester. Even Black community is thinking of setting up its own schools with black teachers as role models.

[admin]

Muslim immigrants with kids, find it quite difficult to let their kids learn about their culture. It is true that state and church schools will make them easier to adapt with their environment, but you might be surprised with the bad effect of Western culture that is 180 degrees different than your own culture. For example, if you teach your kids to obey their parents as the culture you bring from your origin, your kids will learn the opposite at their school.

No they won't. Schools teach no such thing as disobeying their parents. Utter rubbish.



The freedom of expressing their feeling among Western family has made them take it in the wrong way. Your kids which havent able to name which one is right and which one is wrong will swallow the examples they get from their school and implements it in the daily life.


More rubbish. Expressing feelings is not 'wrong'. Unless your idea of 'good' is a person who accepts everything just because they are told. If you want good Muslims capable of thinking and arriving at decisions for themselves, then questioning and freedom of expression are requirements. Otherwise you get left with moron's incapable of independed thought. Being able to think for themselves is one of the greatest gifts you could give your child - even when a child goes against what you believe. Only by independent thought and a critical analysis of the Koran by every person can they truly believe. Simply thinking you believe, or acting in accordance with Muslim ethics because you've been told too is not faith and does nothing for the Muslim person.



Bilingual Muslim children need bilingaul Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods.

Yes, lets make all teachers bilingual for everybody. Spanish, German, Chinese, Indian, English, Finnish, Ethopian, Somalian, Iranian, Korean, French, Brazilian... I'm sure you see that there is an inevitable point at which providing a bilingual teacher for every nationality/culture becomes practically impossible. Which leads nicely to the next argument as to why Muslim's should have one and not say, Korean kids, or Brazilian kids. Where do you draw the line?


There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.

Which I find racist and enforcing segregation. This is not the Muslim way.



There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. The reason Muslim children are in majority in such schools becuase native parents remove their children when they find the number of Muslim children is on the increase. It is native parents who do not want their children to mix with Muslim children.

That's their choice. I don't agree with their choice either, but you're ideas are off the wall.



According to ISM Poll, almost half of the Muslims wish to send to Muslim-only schools. There are 166 Muslim schools and only 11 are state funded I would like to see each and every Muslim child in a state funded Muslim school.

And what of the Brazilian, korean, et al children? Lets set up a school for every culture in these islands. The proposal is absurd. No problem with Muslim schools, but state funded? No. Just as Catholic schools should not be state funded or schools for Hindu's, Koreans, Brazilians, blacks etc etc.



It will not add even a single penny more to British tax-payers

Yes it will. It will add a lot of pennies. Unless they cave in to your demands for special treatment above all other cultures, religions and nationalities.


It is not only Muslim parents who want state funded Muslim schools for their children. Now Hindu community has set up a state funded Hindu school in Harrow and next year it is planning to set up in Leicester. Even Black community is thinking of setting up its own schools with black teachers as role models.
Oh for Pete's sake. :nono: