{"id":1094,"date":"2013-06-12T07:25:48","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T07:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1078051064.test.prositehosting.co.uk\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2013-06-12T07:43:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T07:43:54","slug":"gove-and-the-role-of-schools-in-addressing-extremism-and-cohesion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/?p=1094","title":{"rendered":"Gove and the role of schools in addressing extremism and cohesion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I recently decided to remind myself what being educated meant and the purpose of education. Through an internet search, I was able to download some interesting material. Alongside articles by the likes of RS Peters and Paul Nash, I also came across a speech by a Michael Gove, delivered to the RSA in June 2009, entitled ‘What is education for?’. While I learnt little from it, I did discover that it was here that the current Secretary of State had first publicly denigrated community cohesion saying that it “gets in the way of… education.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, as soon as the new government had the chance, it de-prioritised\u00a0 this very important area which goes to the very heart of our multicultural society. While in theory schools are still under a duty to promote community cohesion, it means little in practice. I am reliably informed that the subject rarely comes up during Ofsted inspections. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Birmingham, which is currently home to some 187 communities, parallel and separate living is very much alive. In my new book ‘Dear Birmingham – a conversation with My Hometown’, I have stressed the importance of bringing people together through the instigation of a ‘One Birmingham’ programme. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While I would support Professor Cantle’s call to bring cohesion back on the schools’ agenda (\u2018Schools must play a key role in combating extremism, experts say\u2019 TES 31 May 2013<\/strong><\/a>), in my view they alone cannot be expected to deal with this major area. The source of many of the problems and issues about conflict and ‘un-community’ lies beyond school, the response to them equally needs to involve the whole community. Here, we would also do well to remind ourselves of the ‘Strategy for\u00a0 positive activities’ put in place under the previous government. One paragraph in particular is relevant here: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Participation in positive activities also provides opportunities for building relationships with positive role models, and for mixing with, and bridging gaps between, young people from different ethnic and faith groups as well as different generations \u2013 thereby building community cohesion.” <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I recently decided to remind myself what being educated meant and the purpose of education. Through an internet search, I was able to download some interesting material. Alongside articles by the likes of RS Peters and Paul Nash, I also came across a speech by a Michael Gove, delivered to the RSA in June … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Gove and the role of schools in addressing extremism and cohesion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forwardpartnership.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}