Sorry to those of you who are easily offended by my Headline to this article, but I really am incensed.
It seems that there is “One Rule for Them and another One for Us” - but that's not why I am incensed. it's the intransigence of Mr Balls which causes my ire to rise!
How can we have laws in this country which apply to some groups of people, but not to others? Let me cite you an example.
If I were to smack a child in a state school I would be deemed to be breaking the law.
If I was teaching in a Muslim Mandrasah and I smacked a child I would not be breaking the law. FACT.
You may well be asking yourself how can this be – although those of you who are more aware of the realities of some of our MP’s will, no doubt, be not in the least surprised.
Smacking is banned in all State and Private schools, and has been for some time now, however it does not apply to Mandrasahs, where pupils usually study in the evenings or at weekends.
Ed Balls was urged, last week, to close a legal loophole which gives teachers at Britain’s estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques, the right to smack children. He refused, prompting the claim that he is allowing a culture of physical abuse in some of the mosque schools - or mandrasahs - to go unchecked. The reason this loophole has come about is because the law states that it does not apply to school where pupils study less than 12.5 hours per week.
A report, just over a year ago stated that pupils in mandrasahs had been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted. The former Government Advisor on Islamic affairs said that one mandrasah student was picked up by the leg and spun round, whilst another student claimed a teacher was “kicking in my head like a football.”
In a separate report in 2006, leading British Muslim Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui raised fears that physical abuse in Mandrasahs was widespread.
Keighley MP Ann Cryer claims that some of the children being ill treated in Islamic schools are special needs children. “They don’t seem to have any understanding of special needs children. If a child isn’t learning their Koranic verses well, they think it is because they are being naughty, not because they have an incapacity. It isn’t just a question of beating – they have a punishment called the “chicken position” where a child must squat on the floor until they get very uncomfortable.”
A spokesman for Mr Balls department denied that his refusal to change the law was based on fears of upsetting Muslim opinion. “We have no evidence that the law is being abused or that children are being abused in these circumstances”, he said.
So the two reports I have cited above are not sufficient evidence? I just wish I could have personally dragged Mr Ball by the b***s to the school where I used to teach in MORE THAN FIFTEEN YEARS AGO and let him hear some of the tales the Muslim children who attended the Mandrasahs used to tell me. These were also the children who had the greatest difficulty in learning to read (as we do in England – from left to right), because in the Mandrasahs they read from right to left, and if they made the mistake of reading from left to right they were beaten by their teachers. It is small wonder that these pupils found it so difficult to read in English - they were beaten if they read left to right at the Mandrasah.
It seems that there is “One Rule for Them and another One for Us” - but that's not why I am incensed. it's the intransigence of Mr Balls which causes my ire to rise!
How can we have laws in this country which apply to some groups of people, but not to others? Let me cite you an example.
If I were to smack a child in a state school I would be deemed to be breaking the law.
If I was teaching in a Muslim Mandrasah and I smacked a child I would not be breaking the law. FACT.
You may well be asking yourself how can this be – although those of you who are more aware of the realities of some of our MP’s will, no doubt, be not in the least surprised.
Smacking is banned in all State and Private schools, and has been for some time now, however it does not apply to Mandrasahs, where pupils usually study in the evenings or at weekends.
Ed Balls was urged, last week, to close a legal loophole which gives teachers at Britain’s estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques, the right to smack children. He refused, prompting the claim that he is allowing a culture of physical abuse in some of the mosque schools - or mandrasahs - to go unchecked. The reason this loophole has come about is because the law states that it does not apply to school where pupils study less than 12.5 hours per week.
A report, just over a year ago stated that pupils in mandrasahs had been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted. The former Government Advisor on Islamic affairs said that one mandrasah student was picked up by the leg and spun round, whilst another student claimed a teacher was “kicking in my head like a football.”
In a separate report in 2006, leading British Muslim Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui raised fears that physical abuse in Mandrasahs was widespread.
Keighley MP Ann Cryer claims that some of the children being ill treated in Islamic schools are special needs children. “They don’t seem to have any understanding of special needs children. If a child isn’t learning their Koranic verses well, they think it is because they are being naughty, not because they have an incapacity. It isn’t just a question of beating – they have a punishment called the “chicken position” where a child must squat on the floor until they get very uncomfortable.”
A spokesman for Mr Balls department denied that his refusal to change the law was based on fears of upsetting Muslim opinion. “We have no evidence that the law is being abused or that children are being abused in these circumstances”, he said.
So the two reports I have cited above are not sufficient evidence? I just wish I could have personally dragged Mr Ball by the b***s to the school where I used to teach in MORE THAN FIFTEEN YEARS AGO and let him hear some of the tales the Muslim children who attended the Mandrasahs used to tell me. These were also the children who had the greatest difficulty in learning to read (as we do in England – from left to right), because in the Mandrasahs they read from right to left, and if they made the mistake of reading from left to right they were beaten by their teachers. It is small wonder that these pupils found it so difficult to read in English - they were beaten if they read left to right at the Mandrasah.
I'm not sure he has any
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