Putting Birmingham School Kids First campaign launch
Richard Hatcher of Birmingham Left Unity reports
The Putting Birmingham School Kids First campaign was launched last night with a huge public rally of at least 500 people (according to ITN News). In the two and a half hour meeting the main speakers included NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney, Birmingham Labour MP Shabana Mahmood, Shabina Bano of the Oldknow parents campaign, Tim Brighouse, former Chief Education Officer for Birmingham (on video), and Salma Yaqoob, ex-Respect leader and former Birmingham councillor. It is Salma who has played the leading role in creating this broad and inclusive campaign. There followed a series of short speeches from the platform including from community activists, Labour councillors (and one LibDem), and Birmingham NUT.
Speakers were united in rejecting the Trojan Horse allegations of a Muslim extremist plot and Gove’s exploitation of them to attack the Muslim community in Birmingham with biased Ofsted inspections. There was a strong sense of Birmingham’s identity as a multicultural city built by successive waves of immigration and determined to resist racist divisions. The campaign recognises that there are some governance problems in some schools, but those should be dealt with by the community in Birmingham, not by a politically-motivated assault by government.
In my short contribution I made two points. The first was about the policy tools which Gove has used to put his Islamophobic attack into practice. There are three. First, his unprecedented dictatorial powers as secretary of state. Second, his use of Ofsted as an arm of government policy, not an independent and supportive evaluator of schools. Third, creating a situation in which governors are unaccountable to the local community through a combination of the academies policy and the disempowering of local authorities. These are policies which the Labour leadership should commit itself to reversing – but so far has given no sign of doing so.
My second point concerned the next steps for the campaign. The huge attendance at the meeting makes clear that there is the desire and the opportunity to seize the initiative from Gove and create our own shared vision of what a high quality socially just education would be, through an ongoing dialogue between parents, teachers and the local community. Not stigmatised schools in a stigmatised community but a model which other schools and communities across the city and beyond (where problems of unaccountable governance can also occur) can learn from.
The local authority should be part of this new partnership, but they have to change. The city council has set up its own inquiry into the Trojan Horse allegation, due to report in a month, but the Review members don’t include any representatives of parents, or of the local community, or of teachers and other school workers and their unions. The council needs to follow up the Review by creating an open, inclusive and democratic forum within which the dialogue the community wants can take place over the coming months, generating plans for action. Will the council be prepared to do this? (I asked the councillor responsible for ‘social cohesion’ last night but he had no answer.) If the council won’t take a lead the Putting Birmingham School Kids First campaign will need to do it itself.
These are the sorts of practical and political issues that the campaign will need to discuss now that the initial launch has demonstrated that it has mass support.
There is one other step that needs to be taken: to turn Gove’s attack on Birmingham into an attack at the national level on Gove’s education policies which have enabled it: dictatorial central control, an inspection system that urgently needs reform, a system of school governance that, in Tim Brighouse’s words, is broken, the abuse of academy freedom, the disempowering and in some cases virtual incapacity of local authorities (taking up the call by the Local Government Association for their restoration), and the place of religion in schools. There is a proposal that the NUT could take the lead in organising a conference on that basis in the autumn.
Here is the launch statement of the Birmingham campaign:
PUTTING BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL KIDS FIRST
The central allegation, that there was an organized plot to radicalise school children in a handful of Birmingham schools, remains unproven. What the OFSTED reports show is some governance issues in some schools.
In order to fix these problems we need greater clarity about the issues these investigations have revealed. This needs to be done without the sensationalist references to extremism and national security that we have seen so far which have caused confusion and concern across the city and country. Many people now believe that their children’s educational potential, achievement and well-being is being threatened by politicians, who wish to be seen as ‘tough’ on Muslims.
This approach has been deeply unhelpful, hurtful and insulting, and most importantly could prevent us finding the solutions we need to help school children in Birmingham.
The Putting Birmingham School Kids First campaign aims to:
1. Make sure that any issues of governance within Birmingham schools are fixed and fixed fast.
2. Challenge the false and divisive allegation that this is a problem of systematic radicalization, extremism or terrorism.
We will work with anyone who is willing to put the interests of our children first. But the starting point has to be a true understanding of the problem. Many people have serious concerns about the impartiality of OFSTED and feel there was a climate of fear surrounding their investigations. But even their 21 investigations did not reveal a link to radicalisation. We share the view of West Midlands Chief Constable that the appointment of a counter-terrorism expert to investigate our schools was a provocative and unhelpful move.
The Muslim community is no different to any other faith community in having a spectrum of opinions, from liberal to conservative, on what is the correct balance between secular and religious values in the provision of education. Instead of debating these issues openly, the government has taken the completely inappropriate approach of linking this with the prevention of terrorism.
Workable solutions will not appear overnight. Trust has broken down between those who should be working together. Our role in the journey is to provide parents, staff, pupils and governors a strong forum within which to voice their opinions about the issues raised over the last few months and to give their views about whether proposed solutions will work – in a safe and transparent space.
We want solutions that ensure our school children receive a top quality education that prepares them to be engaged and active citizens. There are already many cases of outstanding practice in Birmingham, these need to be acknowledged and adopted more widely. We are proud that Birmingham is among the youngest and most multi-cultural cities in the world and stand by its people in all their diversity.
Signed: Tim Brighouse (Former Education Commissioner), Shabana Mahmood MP, Christine Blower (NUT General Secretary), Salma Yaqoob (Convenor), Dr Chris Allen (Birmingham University), Revd Ray Gaston, (Anglican Priest), Father Oliver Coss, and many others.
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3 responses to “Putting Birmingham School Kids First campaign launch”
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This is the text of the leaflet Birmingham LU gave out at the rally:
Why we support Putting Birmingham School Kids First
The Muslim community in Birmingham is under attack by Michael Gove and his government, aided by the racist Tory press.
They say Islam = extremism = terrorism.
They use that as an excuse for biased Ofsted inspections of our schools.
They couldn’t find any evidence of “Islamist extremism”. But they are still going ahead with more attacks – more academy takeovers and enforced teaching of their “British values”.
Yes, as the Putting Birmingham School Kids First statement says, there are some problems of governance in some schools – just as there are in other schools across the city. Governors who bully staff, abuse proper recruitment and promotion procedures, impose a restricted curriculum and enforce inequality on pupils.
But it is the government that is to blame for creating the situation. Their policies of ‘autonomous’ academies and starved and powerless local authorities have left governing bodies unaccountable to anyone except Mr Gove.
Gove’s solution in Birmingham is put the schools in “special measures” and hand them over to new academy takeovers to run.
We say no: These schools are not failures, some have good and outstanding teaching and results. Where improvement is needed, we will sort it out ourselves: teachers, parents and the community, with help from the local authority and other schools where needed.
Gove’s attack has brought the community together in support of Putting Birmingham School Kids First. Now we can use it as an opportunity to improve our schools: teachers, parents, community and local authority working together to develop a shared vision of a high quality socially just education for our children – a model for schools across the city.
But where is the support from the Labour Party?
Why has the shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt, made no statement of support for us in Birmingham? Why hasn’t he bothered to visit and talk to parents, teachers and the community?
And where is the statement of support from our Labour Council? Why isn’t the Cabinet Member for Education standing with us instead of keeping silent?
The Council has set up its own Review, due to report in July. It has 15 members, though only 4 are Muslim and only 5 are women. But there is not a single representative from parents, no-one from the local community, and no representatives of teachers and their unions, only headteachers.
We say: open up the Review – turn it into a democratic Public Inquiry open to all, a forum to create a new shared vision for education in our schools and community.
That is why we say we can’t rely any longer on Labour, we need a new broad party of the left, and that is what Left Unity is building. Join us!
I also attended the meeting last night which was very well attended I would also say at least 500 possibly more. It was great to see all members of the communities coming together not just the Muslim community. The mood of this meeting was very positive and defiant that the community in Birmingham will rally around and we won’t allow the lie that any of the problems that may have been identified are anything to do with extremism and terrorism.
As Rick has given a good report I just wanted to add from my point of view as a parent with children in school in Birmingham and also lived in Small Heath for a few years, that the accounts from parents and staff within the schools of the things some of the children had said were very sad. We must remember the damage this is doing to the children. Pupils who are just trying to get on with their education, who used to be proud of their school badge now afraid that people are looking at them as linked to extremism. The bullying that one of the speakers mentioned from other children and young children who had no notion of what extremism are now looking it up to see what they are being accused of.
This is very sad and should never have been allowed the media circus these poor children have been placed in is certainly not in their best interests. When all of this is over and the circus has moved on who will be there to support these children with the damage that is undoubtedly being done. It was heartening to hear all the support and the united rejection of the Trojan horse plot and the defiant call that we will not in Birmingham take this, all the people of Birmingham should get behind this campaign.
Not for the first time I find myself saying Micheal Gove your messing with our children’s education is damaging and destructive and you really need to go.
Very interesting and glad to see this positive community unity. I have already posted the link on the LU Notts and Nott Facebook page. Also good to see Salma Yaqoob back on the front lines — she has been missed! — and well done to all for getting this story written and posted rapidly.