Inaya Folarin Iman: Parents have a right to prevent the moral re-engineering of their children

The American School in London, previously rated outstanding, has been downgraded to Needs Improvement by Ofsted due to its approach to social issues. The school was praised for having high expectations, with an emphasis on developing creativity and intellectual effort.

The report emphasises that teachers are well-qualified and that bullying is uncommon. This is all welcome and important.

However, according to the Ofsted report, sometimes, teaching places much more weight on the school’s approach to social justice than on learning subject-specific knowledge and skills. The report stated that opportunities are available for pupils with different characteristics to discuss issues that affect them.

However, not everyone felt that they are able to express their views freely in class. A significant number felt that their voices are not encouraged or, in some cases, are suppressed.

The report goes further, stating that there are areas of the curriculum that are not balanced. In lower-school social studies, pupils spend much time repeatedly considering identity (including analysing their own characteristics) rather than learning, for example, geographical knowledge.

The middle-school humanities curriculum, which includes English, also leads to a focus on social issues rather than subject knowledge and skills. This means that some pupils felt underprepared for high school.

According to the report, while recognising the importance of promoting equalities, a significant minority of parents and pupils told inspectors that a culture has developed where alternative opinions are not felt welcome. In some classrooms, teaching has not allowed for questioning or for the balanced presentation of opposing views.

In my view, this is just one example of a growing trend, where, in the name of promoting social justice, a one-sided, partisan approach to education is being promoted and institutionalised.

Rather than subject knowledge being transmitted from one generation to another, students are being socialised into highly contested values and placed into narrow identity boxes, to put it simply, they are being indoctrinated.

This is a violation of trust between parents and schools and a violation of the moral purpose of education.

Children are being encouraged to place their identity characteristics, for example their race, at the centre of how they view the world and relate to one another, this is racial identity politics.

The politics that previous generations have spent so long exposing for its anti-human, racialist, discriminatory and divisive nature.

Just as parents at the American School in London have demanded and parents in Brighton and Hove have done too, when it comes to the teaching of so-called ‘social justice’, parents have a right to know what their children are being taught and to prevent the moral re-engineering of their children.

Last month, education secretary Nadhim Zahwai vowed to stop the teaching of activist propaganda in schools and so far, has published guidance on the teaching on political issues. But, we need to go much further.

We need a society-wide re-articulation of the primacy of a humanist, knowledge-rich education, the importance of freedom of speech and the cultivation of a shared common culture. In this area, we have a long way to go.