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Sectarian Schools in Britain

Dr. Norman Berdichevsky - 8/20/2007

The recent controversy over the advisability of establishing separate Muslim sectarian schools has opened a broad debate in Britain on the nature of what is exactly meant by a 'multicultural society'. In spite of the use of this term by members of parliament and even ministers, it means different things to different people. There are now more than 7,000 faith-based schools in Britain, the great majority run by the Church of England or the Catholic church, with a handful of Jewish schools and over the past twenty years more than 100 Muslim schools have been established, primarily in London and in the cities of the Northern Midlands where large numbers of Muslim immigrants settled.

The majority of these schools are privately run but since 1998, a handful have won full accreditation and received state funding and in order to qualify for such help they, in turn, must teach the national curriculum and run a nondiscriminatory admissions policy. There are also dozens of state run schools that have overwhelming Muslim majorities of more than 90% of their student body due to segregated housing patterns, especially in the Midlands. Some of the still privately run independent Muslim schools are partially funded by funds from Saudi Arabia and make use of Saudi texts (also used by Hamas in Gaza) that are blatantly biased on the Middle East conflict, anti-Semitic and reflect the ultra-conservative Wahhabi trend within Islam.

Most of us understand assimilation as the absorbing of an immigrant group into the host culture. Where the culture, language, religion, and racial identity of the two groups differ substantially, the task of absorption is longer and more difficult. Whatever the background, the issue for all parents who agonize over the decision whether to send their children to state or special sectarian schools is however much the same: should the formal educational system acknowledge and in someway validate 'our heritage'?

The hope is that most state schools will creatively find ways to value the backgrounds of all their pupils equally. If there is a basic mistrust that this validation will take place, the pupils cannot feel secure regarding their ability to live, work and compete on equal terms, except by totally surrendering the heritage of their parents. The older generation of the foreign born who have settled here permanently naturally have expectations that their children will not deny their ancestral heritage which has been transmitted and cherished for generations.

The teachers in state schools cannot however make this goal a primary educational objective of the school. The primary objective must be the preparation of all young people equally for a productive future in the mainstream of the dominant society. Parents demanding sectarian schools must make a case for why they expect the state to bear the major costs instead of using their own private means and their children's own private time after a state school-based educational program. Only sectarian schools which are committed to the principle of preparing young people to compete equally in this society and at the same time promote an appreciation of an ancestral heritage, distinct cultural tradition or of dearly held religious values can escape the justified suspicion that they are divisive.

Even when ethnic differences are non-existent as in Northern Ireland, religion often functions as a principal indicator of social belonging or ostracism. Is there as good a case to be made for sectarian schools on a religious basis alone? I believe the answer must be a qualified yes. This is the result of historic 'memories' that refuse to be exorcised (the Reformation and counter-Reformation, the Battle of the Boyne, East European pogroms, the Expulsion of 1290, the Crusades etc.). The same is true for distinctive ethnic groups whose cultural heritage is held as a primary value by parents.

Prime Minister Tony Blair made parental choice a key element of his education policy, and gave families the option of sending their children to a secular state school or a faith-based one. This mean that the best run religious schools that accept state financing can provide a high quality education that otherwise would be available only on the private level for high fees as in France. The record in Britain is that a few state-funded Muslim schools have strong academic records whereas the older and more established Jewish schools at the secondary level have traditionally obtained very high academic achievements.
Since the terrorist attacks on the London Underground on July 7, however, Islamic schools have been criticized for their role in fostering social divisions or even worse alienating their pupils from the core values of British society. Some social scientists suggest that alienation from modern British culture might be a factor encouraging some to seek martyrdom as suicide bombers. This is strongly denied by Muhammad Mukadam, chairman of the Muslim schools' association who has called attention to the fact that none of the young men linked to the July 7 bombings had attended Muslim schools in Britain, though they might have done so elsewhere.

The Islamia Schools group in London, set up in 1983 often has several thousand applicants for only a handful of available places but only entered the state system in 1998. It is open to both sexes and all ages from primary school to pre-university, and has children from more than 20 national origins among its students. In addition to the demand to teach the state curriculum, state-funded schools must be certified, and state-funded schools, unlike private ones, must allow community members to sit on their governing boards. In spite of these requirements, concern has been expressed that the influence of parents at Muslim schools pressure the teachers to avoid the subject of the Holocaust because it does not fit into their conception of important historical information of relevance for their children.

Apologists for Islam in Britain remind critics that the parents should have such influence and that “adapting” the curriculum is sometimes necessary. For most Brits among the white native born and Protestant majority, there is no foreseeable wish on the part of the overwhelming majority of people here to , id themselves of a thousand years of history, tradition and the identity forged between the monarchy (whose sovereign is still the Defender of THE Faith), the flag (with its crosses of St. George and St. Andrew), the Churches of England and Scotland and the Anglican prayers and hymns heard at all nondenominational comprehensive state schools' morning assemblies. This is likely to remain true no matter how multi-cultural, multi-ethnic or multi-religious Britain becomes. As long as the majority feels entitled to these, allowance should be made to others who hold other symbols just as dearly.

Most Catholic, Jewish or Muslim parents whose way of life and deeply held beliefs allow them to look upon the monarch and the flag as shared symbols cannot accept the state's church and morning assembly prayers and hymns as their own. They should continue to have a right to provide alternatives for the education of their children in this regard, but must also accept that the state schools are duty bound to offer a curriculum based on the appreciation of national symbols, rules to guide acceptable public behavior, the acquisition of those necessary skills to help earn a living and contribute to the general welfare and last but not least, the achievements of English culture and British history.

I lived and worked in London from 1991 to 1999. Due to the sudden illness of the regular Hebrew teacher at The Jews Free School in London, I was able to fill in and continued in the same capacity the following year as the result of another fluke - the sudden change of mind of the Hebrew teacher hired from Israel to fill the position. I was hired for a position to teach the modern Hebrew language which nevertheless was officially regarded by the school and the authorities as part of the particular “religious part of the curriculum”. Traditionally, the school would have insisted that the teacher be an observant orthodox Jew, but they looked the other way due to the pressing need to fill the position.

JFS was established in 1817 and by the end of the 19th century the school had over 4,000 pupils on roll, both boys and girls, making it the largest state supported school in London. In the century since then, the school has migrated across London from the East End to Camden Town to the outer suburbia of Northwest London) just as the descendants of immigrants have themselves migrated.

The same school in all of its advertisements for new staff insists on using the language that it welcomes non-Jewish teachers (for all subjects in the curriculum except Jewish Studies and Modern Hebrew) but in my case the fact that I am a secular Jew already created problems from the start even though no part of the language instruction curriculum relies on any doctrine of religious observance. In the classroom, this meant that I had to wear a kippah (head covering worn by observant Jews). On this same issue, the school once cancelled an event in which the celebrated Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua, was scheduled to give a talk.

The 'basic instinct' of many in the non-orthodox Jewish community is that Jewish schools run a risk of segregating pupils from main-stream society and fail to provide a balanced realistic view of the world around them, yet nevertheless, while paying lip service to universal ideals, send their children to a state supported Jewish school all the same which they believe is academically superior to the alternative state comprehensive school. The same explanation was given by cynics for the apparent success of bi-lingual (Welsh and English) schools in Wales and even schools in Ireland that offer instruction in Gaelic. Such schools enjoyed a greatly increased popularity since the 1970s. A socio-economic profile of pupil enrolment revealed a definite middle class preponderance in these schools and Labour party critics assailed the trend as an attempt to preserve an elitist environment rather than promote Welsh cultural identity.

As a teacher of Hebrew in the Jews' Free School in London for a year and a half I came to the conclusion that the greatest failure of Jewish schools lies in the same direction -- their inability to provide not just a veneer of traditional observance of ritual under the guise of Limmudei Kodesh (Jewish Studies) and Ivrit (Hebrew) but a cultural counterpoint to Anglo-Saxon society. A new subject entitled “Israel Studies” was recently introduced and hopefully will provide a better understanding of the links between British Jews and Israeli society beyond formal religious observance. In contrast to the Welsh, Scots and Irish who have distinct 'home' territories within the British isles, all other so-called 'minority groups' face the dilemma of promoting an appreciation for an alternative culture than the overwhelmingly dominant and universally imitated and admired English one.

Jewish beliefs and traditions stem from an enormous variety of Diaspora experiences, different languages, customs, and beliefs -- a diverse heritage and in today's reality, largely reduced to preferences for 'mother's kitchen' (i.e. the Smoked Salmon, Gefilte Fish and Salt Beef Jews). If one reads the community newsletters of other ethnic groups in Britain there is a lively debate not just regarding political developments in the ancestral homeland but also cultural creativity there -- literature, popular music and song, dance, the arts, and sport. The common denominator to enjoy this creativity is language.

In today's Britain, Jews are not, as they were in the past, the only significant and highly visible minority. At the turn of the century Jews were highly concentrated geographically in the East End of London and the great majority enjoyed a vibrant cultural and religious life in another language (Yiddish). Over the past three generations, many have chosen to give up much of this heritage and draw closer to the English majority in every way except formal religious identification.

In many ways, the same process has occurred over the past five centuries to the Scots, Welsh and the Irish who have remained within the political framework of the United Kingdom. These three peoples of the 'Celtic fringe' of Britain have witnessed the loss of much of their heritage. The same has occurred with significant numbers of European immigrants -- the Greeks, Germans, Poles, Italians and Maltese and is also occurring among 'New Commonwealth' immigrants many of whom are racially different and non-Christian.

Ask a Jewish High School pupil to name a modern Hebrew author, the latest hit play in Israel or sing the words of an Israeli popular song and the chances are you will draw a blank stare. For the few who can recognize an author's name, probably not one in a hundred has read his or her work even in English translation. Jewish education in Britain fails to provide this intense identification with modern Israel as a cultural homeland.

The major Jewish communal institutions and even the schools themselves have largely been apathetic in the face of the threat to withdraw the A-level and GCSE exams in Hebrew leaving the matter entirely in the hands of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and not trying to mobilize the community, while the rumor to do the same with another 'minor' language, Polish, produced a popular and successful campaign to assure the financial commitment of the community to subsidize the exam and gather 16,500 signatures in protest! The example of the massive response of the rank and file Polish community -- petitions, and dozens of letters to the editor and MPs should serve as an example of ethnic pride.

Hebrew was and remains the least popular subject in the curriculum and most pupils looked forward to ditching it as soon as possible. Herein lies the difference and the failure of many to see the potential of what Jewish schools should provide -- a proud cultural heritage based on modern Hebrew and Israel. In my view, Jews have lost a good deal of the respect of other minority ethnic groups in Britain when they are seen not to cultivate their 'own' language, music, dance, folklore, dress, food or preserve their original family names.

Jews differ from the majority by religion but this religion is visible only among the devoutly orthodox. The non-orthodox tend however to be attracted to affluent 'golden ghettos' of suburbia and are often seen only as a pale imitation of the affluent classes of the 'Anglo-Saxon (English) majority.' By 2050, it is likely that the majority of the Jewish People will be Hebrew speaking Israelis. Every year sees more Jewish families in Britain connected in some close way with Israel through emigration of friends or family. Repeated visits to Israel bring a greater familiarity with the country's landscapes and way of life -- slowly but surely we are exchanging former connections to origins in Eastern Europe, Spain or Portugal or the Arab World with a recognition of Israel as a parallel homeland and in so doing coming to resemble the other ethnic communities in Britain.

One can have more than a single identity. Some of the greatest writers in the English language were Scots, Welsh and Irish. James Joyce did not feel less Irish or Dylan Thomas less Welsh or Robert Louis Stevenson less Scottish because they chose to write in English. Their subjects are recognizably Irish, Welsh and Scottish characters set in the towns, and countryside of Ireland, Wales and Scotland with which they were intimately familiar. They wrote in English but expressed the fortunes and misfortunes of their countries' native sons and daughters. It is even more than a bit ironic that the main character in Joyce's Ulysses representing 'everyman' is Bloom -- an Irish Jew! Some of the greatest writers in the English Language today are Asians who have long been resident in Britain and whose work reflects a dual cultural heritage (Salman Rushdie and V.S. Naipul) enjoyed by Asian-Britons.

A Welshman who chooses to vote for Plaid Cymru (the Welsh Nationalist Party) will argue with his fellow countrymen, only one-fifth of whom speak Welsh fluently (if only one-fifth of the British Jewish community could even read an Israeli newspaper!), that without national independence, Welsh culture is doomed in the face of the majority English domination of the UK. However, the popularity of the Eisteddfod, the continued success and appeal of massed Welsh male choirs, the growth of a parallel Welsh language elementary school system, the success of the Welsh language t.v. station all bode well for the survival of what makes Wales distinctive and makes even non-Welsh speakers aware that their cultural and historical heritage is alive, presenting the opportunity for an added dimension in their lives.

In my view, Jewish or Muslim or Catholic pupils should not be separated or segregated from their friends even if they go to a sectarian school. They must share the same national symbols as well as have the choice if they so wish, to preserve those distinctive cultural features which would allow a shared feeling of kinship and cultural connection with their ethnic or religious counterparts. Those sectarian schools that offer both elements have a right to be partially supported by the state. Those which cannot accept the common shared elements out of a fear of a loss of identity have no right to claim any public support.