Government urged to review Ofsted over creationism
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Your support makes all the difference.The Government was urged yesterday to investigate the way Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, had carried out an inspection of a controversial Gateshead school which teaches its pupils creationism.
Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat education spokes-man, told the National Union of Teachers conference in Bournemouth that ministers must query why Ofsted had failed "to pick up and challenge such extreme fundamentalist views," being promoted at Emmanuel College, a city technology college.
He added that four of the inspection team had also inspected Huntington School in York, one of the top performing comprehensives in the country, and concluded that: "Spiritual development is severely limited by an absence of religious education."
"Our schools should not be recruiting grounds for any religion and Ofsted has a duty to root out such practices," he said. "The Secretary of State must carry out a review of Ofsted to ensure it remains independent and only inspects against agreed criteria." His call was backed by Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the NUT.
Emmanuel is sponsored by a millionaire businessman, Sir Peter Vardy, who is planning six more academies which will also be partially state funded. Mr Willis said that they would be "obliged to adopt his fundamentalist beliefs on creationism."
He told the conference that Emmanuel's head of science, Steven Layfield, had said on a website that students should challenge evolution and "wherever possible give the alternative (always better) Biblicial explanation of the same data".
He warned Tony Blair, who is in favour of more private sponsorship: "By accepting cash from rich donors, you may well fulfil your policy of diversity but as ever 'there is no such thing as a free lunch'."
A spokesman for Ofsted said it had asked Emmanuel's governors for an assurance that "the private views of the head of science don't influence the way in which he teaches".
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