London: British Court of appeal in its judgment said that Islamic school in Birmingham caused unlawful sex discrimination by separating girls and boys.
According to the report published in The Guardian, the court overturned the decision of the high court which ruled that Ofsted was wrong to penalize the Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham.
Ofsted School inspectors had criticized that the policy of gender segregation as it is failing to uphold British values.
During the appeal, Ofsted argued that by segregating students based on gender, the school had breached the 2010 Equalities Act. It also said that from the age of nine, they are taught in separate classrooms. They even use separate corridors. The policy is also applicable to club and school trips.
Whereas, lawyers of the school argued that the policy of segregation was made clear to the previous Ofsted inspector. Staff also clearly explains it to the parents who want to send their children to school.
In the ruling, judges said that Al-Hijrah caused unlawfully discriminated based on gender. They further asked why girl students cannot socialize with boy students and boy students cannot intermix with girl students?
Lady Justice Gloster asked why girls should wait for their snack until boys finish it. She said that such policies harm the girls more than the boys.
However, judges said that the school should be given time to change and adjust their policies.
This ruling of the court is only applicable to co-educational schools.
It may be mentioned that there are around 25 more schools which implement similar rules. They will also have to abandon their policies after the ruling by Sir Terence Etherton, Lady Justice Gloster and Lord Justice Beatson.
Meanwhile, Ofsted said that it would also check Orthodox Jewish and Christian faith schools.
Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector of Ofsted said that the department’s goal is to prepare children for modern Britain.
Talking about the judgment, Chief Executive of Equality and Human Rights Commission, Rebecca Hilsenrath said she welcomes the judgment.
The National Secular Society welcomed the judgment. Director, Stephen Evans said that society is reluctant to condemn discrimination.