A SENIOR Christian official at one of the Birmingham school
trusts involved in the "Trojan horse" affair (News,
13 June) has called the OFSTED investigations of the schools
"woefully shoddy and unprofessional", and "fatally flawed".
The vice-chairman of the Park View Educational Trust, David
Hughes, who describes himself as "a white, practising Anglican",
has written a strongly worded letter of protest to the Education
Secretary, Michael Gove, and the head of OFSTED, Sir Michael
Wilshaw.
He writes: "There is no plot to 'Islamise' Park View, or to
promote the violation of anyone's human rights, or to promote
extremism, by governors or school leadership - nor did the OFSTED
inspection or EFA [Education Funding Agency] review find any
evidence of such.
"The only area in which we have been extreme is in our absolute
insistence upon breaking the link between demographics,
deprivation, and under-achievement.
"Furthermore, to say that we do not offer a broad or balanced
curriculum, and for inspectors to intimate that abominable
practices like female genital mutilation, and the treatment of
women and girls as second-class citizens, are not robustly
countered at Park View or our sister schools, shocks and saddens
us. It is simply not true."
Mr Hughes is a former head of School and Governor Support
Services for Birmingham City Council, and has served as a governor
at several schools over 20 years.
In his letter, he asks how Park View, when it was once rated as
"Outstanding", can now be told that it has deteriorated at an
alarming rate. "We are largely the same people, doing what we did
previously," he said. "I find it astounding that you are now so
vehement in condemning us as negligent and derelict in our duties
at best, and dangerous at worst.
"I have to say, Mr Gove and Mr Wilshaw, I, too, feel exploited,
intimidated, bullied, and not valued.. . . You have some very angry
communities now who feel frightened, betrayed, and let down by the
way you have exploited the Trojan-horse hoax and demonised
them."
He concludes: "You have my best wishes in dealing with what has
been unleashed."
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