A Muslim schools inspector employed by Ofsted in London refused to shake hands with women teachers, the education watchdog admitted today.
Teachers complained that he snubbed female members of staff because he said it went against his Islamic faith.
The revelation follows the “Trojan horse” extremism row that saw Ofsted and the Government attacking schools for failing to “promote tolerance”.
In particular Government officials criticised one Birmingham primary where a male teacher had refused to shake hands with a female inspector.
Ofsted received complaints about the London incident and has indicated that the inspector was a contractor, and that soon the watchdog will no longer outsource inspections to private firms.
But an upset member of staff said: “It’s double standards by Ofsted. They can’t criticise teachers for not being tolerant when someone inspecting for them is refusing to shake women’s hands.” Ofsted’s code of conduct says all inspectors should treat staff with “courtesy, respect and sensitivity”. An official told the Standard it would not comment on complaints about individual inspectors but added: “We can confirm that the person in question is an additional inspector contracted by our inspection service providers.”
The organisation is now changing its rules so it no longer uses inspectors contracted in from the outside.
Concerns over extremism in Birmingham schools were raised after controversial Ofsted inspection reports were published last month. The report on Oldknow Academy said of the Birmingham school: “The curriculum does not promote tolerance and harmony be- tween different cultural traditions.”
Education Funding Agency inspectors who visited the school complained that a member of staff did not shake a female inspector’s hand “for religious reasons”. Their report said: “He was surprised she did not know that.”
