Muslim kids let down by faith school

COURT BANS SEGREGATION

A MUSLIM school’s policy of separating boys and girls is unlawful, a court ruled in a landmark case yesterday.

The Al-Hijrah School bars pupils from mixing for all lessons, breaks, school clubs and trips from the age of nine to 16.

Pupils are also forbidden from walking down the same corridor.

But three of Britain’s top judges decided unanimously that the segregation policy amounted to sex discrimination.

Their ruling overturned last year’s High Court judgement that Ofsted was wrong to penalise the mixed-sex school.

The Court of Appeal panel allowed the challenge by the education watchdog’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman and paves the way for Ofsted to challenge other schools with a segregation policy.

Ms Spielman said after the ruling against the Birmingham school: “Ofsted’s job is to make sure that all schools properly prepare children for life in modern Britain.

“The school is teaching boys and girls entirely separately, making them walk down separate corridors, and keeping them apart at all times. This is discrimination and is wrong.”

Rebecca Hilsenrath, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Socialisation is a core part of a good quality education, just as much as formal learning, and without it we’re harming children’s life chances from the start.”