An Islamic faith school’s policy of segregating boys from girls is unlawful sex discrimination, Court of Appeal judges have ruled.
Three Court of Appeal judges in London overturned last year’s finding by a High Court judge that Ofsted was wrong to penalise the mixed-sex Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham.
Inspectors had found that separating the pupils left them ‘unprepared for life in modern Britain’.
Ofsted also discovered that the school kept ‘offensive’ books in the library which advocated wife beating and forced sex – a fact the school is not challenging.
In a test case ruling on Friday, the Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton, Lady Justice Gloster, and Lord Justice Beatson unanimously allowed a challenge by Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman against Mr Justice Jay’s decision.
The state-funded Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham challenged its own critical Ofsted report
The case means that Ofsted will be able to mark down Islamic and other faith schools in future for segregating pupils – a controversial practice which campaigners say makes girls feel inferior.
Government lawyers had said there were a ‘number of schools’ that would have to stop segregating, or split into single sex schools if Ofsted won the case.
Helen Mountfield QC, representing the watchdog, had said segregating pupils in a mixed sex school was against the Equality Act 2010.
At a previous hearing she told the court: ‘If boys and girls in a school which is registered as a mixed-sex school lose the opportunity to work and socialise confidently with members of the opposite sex, as Ofsted says they should do, they will go into the world unprepared for life in modern Britain where they are expected to be able to work and socialise in mixed-sex environments.’
But segregation was particularly detrimental to girls because females were ‘part of a group with the minority of power in society’, said Ms Mountfield.
She said Al-Hijrah was an Islamic voluntary aided school which admits pupils of both sexes between the ages of four and 16.
Helen Mountfield QC, representing the watchdog, had said segregating pupils in a mixed sex school was against the Equality Act 2010
From year five, however, boys and girls were completely segregated for all lessons, as well as break and lunchtimes and for school trips and all school clubs.
Martin Chamberlain QC, appearing for the Education Secretary, said the High Court had been wrong to hold that the school’s policy of complete segregation, which had been adopted for religious reasons, was not direct sex discrimination.
He told Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton, Lady Justice Gloster and Lord Justice Beatson: ‘Parliament has made no exception permitting segregation by sex of any sort in a co-educational school.’
The Equality and Human Rights Commission also supported Ofsted.
But, Peter Oldham QC, appearing for the school’s interim executive board, asked the judges to dismiss the appeal.
Mr Oldham said boys and girls at Al-Hijrah, which is maintained by Birmingham City Council, were ‘treated entirely equally while segregated’ and that was lawful.
He said Ofsted did not claim that separation was discrimination until 2016 and its actions were ‘the antithesis of proper public decision making’.