Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Tristram Hunt: Birmingham school takeover claims ‘expose Michael Gove policy chaos’
NASUWT Conference: Shadow education secretary says allegations highlight failed centralisation bid

Alleged infiltration of Birmingham schools by religious hardliners shows the need for more local oversight in education, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said on Saturday.

He told the NASUWT conference in Birmingham that allegations some schools in the city have imposed religious rules demonstrated “the inability of the Department for Education to run 5,000 schools from Whitehall.”

He continued: “It clearly shows the need for a new more accountable system of local oversight, especially as the existing local and regional infrastructure for monitoring schools has been so comprehensively undermined in the last four years.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Britain / 23 July 2014
23 July 2014
Colombian national Isabella Acevedo asks to be treated with same leniency as Harper following reshuffle promotion as Disabled People's Minister
Britain / 23 July 2014
23 July 2014
Watchdog investigation closes down 13 unsafe building sites, hands 85 enforcement notices and warns 201 others
Britain / 11 July 2014
11 July 2014
Britain / 9 July 2014
9 July 2014
Similar stories

Pupils in a classroom
Features / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
MATT FLAMENCO warns of precarity of work, teacher shortages, demoralisation and curriculums filled with ‘corporate-speak’ as among the issues of concern to the education workforce today
CONSERVATIVE POSTER CHILD: School head Katharine Birbalsingh
Features / 10 March 2025
10 March 2025
As the government moves to rein in academy freedoms, former darling of conservative education reform Katharine Birbalsingh cries ‘Marxism.’ Education columnist ROBERT POOLE examines how academisation has failed our children while enriching executives and empowering ideologues at the expense of democratic accountability
TIME TO ACT ON PROMISE: Education secretary, Bridget Phillip
Features / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
The teaching watchdog was declared 'not fit for purpose' in 2007. The time has come to abolish it once and for all, writes BERNIE EVANS