Inspectors are to question children who wear the hijab to primary school, amid concern that girls as young as four are being forced to wear the Muslim headscarf.
The controversial move to ask children why they wear the hijab to school is announced today by the chief inspector of schools, Amanda Spielman.
It will be the first time the rise of the classroom hijab has been officially challenged in state schools in England — or the reason given for wearing it recorded in school reports.
Spielman says in a statement today that primary school hijabs could be seen to be sexualising children because the headscarf is traditionally worn as a sign of modesty in front of men when Muslim girls reach puberty.
Some schools could be in breach of equality laws if girls were required to wear religious dress and boys were not.
“In seeking to address these concerns, inspectors will talk to girls who wear such garments to ascertain why they do so in the school,” says Spielman.
She is also asking parents and the public to complain to head teachers if they think schools are not treating girls and boys equally. If the school does not take the complaint seriously, the complainants should go directly to Ofsted, she says.
The move comes after Spielman met Muslim women and secular campaigners calling for a ban on the wearing of hijabs in primary schools. They gave her evidence showing girls as young as four were being dressed in hijabs to go to school. Some fear the rise of the classroom hijab is a sign of Islamic conservatism asserting itself in the UK.
Spielman asked to meet the campaigners after a Sunday Times survey revealed that nearly a fifth (18%) of 800 state primary schools, in 11 regions of England list the hijab as part of their uniform policy, mostly as an optional item.
One of the country’s top state primary schools revealed it had banned the hijab for girls under eight last autumn, despite protests by parents, and intends to ban it for girls under 11 from next September.
Neena Lall, head teacher of St Stephen’s School in Upton Park, east London, where most pupils are of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage, said children aged three to five were turning up at nursery wearing the hijab. “There is no requirement for girls to wear the hijab until puberty. It is not appropriate in a primary school,” she said.
Toby Howarth, the bishop of Bradford, a city where some Church of England primary schools permit the hijab, said: “Banning the hijab would be counter-productive in Bradford. It would be telling parents we know better than them what their children should wear.”
Amina Lone, a former Labour parliamentary candidate and one of the activists who met the chief inspector, said: “Covering of young girls is often the first sign of young people being treated unequally. This often leads to girls being pulled out of swimming lessons, dance classes or other creative lessons.”
The Department for Education refused to comment but indicated that it was up to schools to set their own uniform policies.