New Ofsted chair Hamid Patel said 'Trojan Horse' scandal alienated Muslims
The new interim chair of Ofsted, the UK's school regulator, has previously criticised the official narrative around the Birmingham "Trojan Horse" affair, saying the episode left some Muslims worried that expressing their faith would bring about "establishment suspicion".
The Trojan Horse affair is a now debunked episode in which Muslim teachers and governors were accused of plotting to take over and Islamicise state schools in Birmingham in 2014.
Sir Hamid Patel, who has been a member of the Ofsted board since 2019, was earlier this week appointed interim chair after Dame Christine Ryan announced last November she would be stepping down.
Patel, who was knighted in 2021, is chief executive of Star Academies, a hugely successful multi-academy trust that runs 36 schools across the country, largely in deprived areas.
In 2023 Star Academies announced a partnership with Eton, Britain's most prestigious private school, to establish six selective sixth form colleges.
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Middle East Eye has reviewed a chapter of a 2022 academic book entitled The Birmingham Book: Lessons in Urban Education Leadership and Policy from the Trojan Horse Affair, in which Patel gave his views on the now notorious episode.
The Department for Education and Ofsted became involved, with the latter carrying out emergency investigations into schools and downgrading their status.
A number of successful Muslim teachers were wrongly targeted and smeared, with misconduct cases brought against Birmingham teachers collapsing in 2017.
Refuting takeover claims
In 2022 a podcast investigation revealed that then-education secretary Michael Gove was told by officials that counter-terrorism police had decided the original letter claiming there was a takeover plot was a hoax.
But Gove, it was reported, "used the letter to sanction numerous high-level investigations into potential extremism in Birmingham schools anyway".
Despite these revelations, there has been no inquiry into the handling of the Trojan Horse affair and senior Conservative politicians, including Gove, have doubled down on the claim that "hard-line activists Islamised state schools in Birmingham".
The new Ofsted chair takes a dramatically different approach.
Patel's Star Academies established two free schools in Birmingham after Trojan Horse and refloated another secondary school, Small Heath, which Ofsted had placed under special measures in 2015.
According to the 2022 book's editor, Colin Diamond, who had been a key figure in a number of the inquiries into Birmingham schools, "Patel listened carefully to governors from Muslim communities in Birmingham who were alienated by Trojan Horse and felt their motives for engagement with schools were being questioned".
In his chapter Patel denied that there had been a systematic attempt by Muslim governors to takeover Birmingham schools.
"We have not seen any evidence to suggest that this was a systematic strategy to assume control of schools," he wrote, "but rather a reflection that there were insufficient candidates putting themselves forward to become governors. Consequently, when gaps opened up, they were filled by existing governors from other schools."
He criticised the governors involved, saying: "Some school leaders noticed that governors met outside and inside schools, merging into a homogeneous group that was perceived as a bullying force.
"Equally, some governors were unable to handle the pressures exerted by small factions within the community who had particularly strong views about schools’ curriculum content and modus operandi."
But the issue, Patel concluded, was a "lack of guidance around faith and cultural expectations" which allowed "practices to develop that could be perceived as being at odds with life in a pluralistic society founded on liberal values".
'Establishment suspicion'
Patel asserted that "Trojan Horse intensified the feeling amongst some Muslims that there was no safe space in which to have a voice.
"Many felt that expressing their faith openly would give rise to establishment suspicion."
He further argued that the episode "exacerbated a culture of division" and "deepened a sense of disempowerment" that was already festering in some areas.
"For people who felt disengaged from mainstream institutions, the fear and suspicion that accompanies the events of Spring 2014 set them further adrift," he said.
Patel added: "Some sections of the population felt that Islamophobia was tacitly embedded in city life, evidenced by the growth of far-right organisations, tensions associated with the Prevent agenda and the perception that stop-and-search powers were being implemented in a way that was inherently racist."
He espoused the idea of "fundamental British values", a concept which schools were expected to promote as part of a revamped counter-extremism programme due to the Trojan Horse scandal: "Maintaining dialogue to espouse fundamental British values is crucial in effective schools. These conversations are not only with pupils, but also with their parents and community members."
Supporting collective worship
Patel appears to support a multiculturalist view of education which sharply differs from the approach taken by Michaela Community School in Wembley, where prominent headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh - who regularly appears on national media - introduced a highly publicised prayer ban last year.
Michaela school describes itself as "secular" with an ethos that involves "aggressively promoting integration".
The issue of collective worship in schools was also central to the Trojan Horse affair, with its existence in the schools involved cited in official reports as supposed evidence of "undue religious influence".
In reality, however, while there are faith-designated schools, there is no such thing as a secular state school in England. All publicly funded schools, including academies and free schools, have a statutory duty to provide a daily act of collective worship and provide compulsory religious education.
'Many felt that expressing their faith openly would give rise to establishment suspicion'
- Sir Hamid Patel
In practice this is unenforced and collective worship is rare in state schools.
But Patel is an avowed champion of the practice, which is carried out in Star Academies institutions: "Collective worship has been a mainstay of British education for many years and remains crucially important in all schools," he wrote in 2022, "irrespective of which faith is at their foundation or whether they are secular in nature.
"Giving young people opportunities to explore the healing that faith brings is an important part of our work."
During a speech earlier this year at the Church of England's annual education conference, Patel said: "Faith provides us with fertile ground for growth, offering a framework informed by the successes of the past and hope for the future."
"Church schools have long been a powerful force for good, contributing to social justice, literacy, and character formation."
MEE has approached Patel for comment.
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