Faith schools have long faced an onslaught of attention from secular society. In recent weeks an investigation by The Times has given London’s “inadequate” Orthodox Jewish schools, in particular, their fifteen minutes of infamy.
Certainly, many faith or unregistered schools have genuine deficiencies, and there are plenty of Haredi schools failing to ensure their pupils gain the basic skills mandated by the National Curriculum. Where this is the case, action is justified. However, it is inappropriate for the state to penalise faith schools -Haredi or otherwise – for not parroting mainstream cultural beliefs. In 2021 Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass boys’ school was rated “inadequate” by Ofsted for not teaching students about same-sex relationships or gender reassignment surgeries. Scores of other faith schools have routinely fallen foul of the same guidelines.
This ebb and flow of hostilities could dramatically ramp up if Labour is victorious at next year’s polls. This is not to suggest the current government’s approach has been palatable, but that the opposition’s current plans to abolish tax relief for independent schools and ramp up equalities legislation could disproportionately take a hit to many faith schools at a time of existing economic malaise and societal hostility. There is also the possibility that Labour would be keen to clamp down on homeschooling, a move the Conservatives have already attempted.
Where poor teaching and abuse are taking place, of course, there is much room for improvement, as Eli Spitzer, headteacher of Headmaster at Tiferes Shlomo Boys’ School admitted in response to The Times’ lengthy investigation.
However, this does not negate the argument that the state should not be in the business of forcing its moral agenda onto faith groups keen to preserve their own communities and beliefs. No one is forcing parents to send their children to religious schools. In fact, the opposite is usually the case, as the bulging waiting lists for The Oratory School and Yavneh College would suggest.
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