Muslim school three months from axe

Published on Wednesday 11 May 2005 00:30

SCOTLAND’S only Muslim school was yesterday given three months to save itself from the axe after watchdogs delivered their second damning report in a year.

The Imam Muhammad Zakariya School in Dundee was severely criticised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMI) in April last year and told it faced closure unless it improved performance within six months.

Among the failings were that pupils had little contact with the outside world and were confined to the school and its grounds for up to two weeks at a time. None of the teaching staff was qualified and the quality of learning was "insufficient in all classes", HMI said.

A follow-up report published yesterday said the all-girl independent school had not "addressed sufficiently the concerns with regard to educational leadership, learning and teaching and the quality of the secular curriculum for all pupils".

Peter Peacock, the education minister, said he would give the school, which has 18 pupils, until August to make further improvements after it emerged a qualified headteacher had been appointed following the latest HMI inspection.

The school opened in August 2001 with the aim of teaching girls of secondary age to be Aalimahs, or Muslim scholars.

Last year’s report identified eight areas where action had to be taken to bring about improvements at the school, but the follow-up inspection found that progress had been made in just three.

Although the school had appointed qualified English and maths teachers, there were "major weaknesses" in other areas, with a lack of qualified staff. The non-religious curriculum for pupils between second and fourth year was even more restricted than at the time of the original inspection, the report said, with no science, social subjects or expressive arts being taught.

Pupils aged over 16 also had a "very limited" curriculum, consisting of just Arabic, sewing and cookery.

A high turnover of staff meant that teaching in areas other than English and maths was even worse than when the original inspection took place.

School staff organised activities and excursions outside school but inspectors said the range was still "limited".

Gaye Nicholson, who took over as headteacher in March, said she was confident sufficient improvements would be made to ensure the school’s survival beyond August. Mrs Nicholson, who founded the British School in Stockholm, Sweden, said steps had already been taken to extend the curriculum and improve links with the local community.

She said:

"I wouldn’t have accepted the job if I didn’t feel I could help and I am confident we can turn things around."

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said the situation at Imam Muhammad Zakariya proved the need for state-funded Muslim schools.