‘There was a cultural obedience you felt you had to adhere to. So, in terms of discipline, I think it was easier for the mosque teacher to discipline the child than a school teacher.’ Past madrassa student (Bradford)
A range of approaches to disciplining children within a madrassa were discussed. A method used by one madrassa involves asking children to discuss and develop their own rules for the madrassa which means they are more likely to abide by them. Another works closely with parents to ensure a joined-up approach to discipline in the home and the madrassa. As one madrassa teacher said: ‘We have our rules. When the parents send their children here, they sign this agreement with us. Whenever there’s something serious, then we have a word with the parents and if we think the child is not controlled, we send them home. We are so strict on that.’ Madrassa teacher (Leicester)
In a small number of cases, however, more extreme methods of discipline, such as corporal punishment, were highlighted by participants, suggesting that there are some madrassas who use methods that pose a risk to child welfare. 4.5.1 Safeguarding children As discussed in the introductory chapter, the problem of child abuse within madrassas has drawn a lot of media attention. Probably the most alarming is the recent BBC Radio 4 investigation where 191 responding local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales confirmed allegations of physical and sexual abuse in the past three years, making a total of 421 cases of physical abuse in madrassas. Even more concerning was the fact that only 10 of those cases went to court, and only two led to convictions. Box 4.4: Development of legislation on corporal punishment Since 1986, parliament has increasingly restricted the use of corporal punishment. It was prohibited in all maintained schools in 1987 and in full-time independent schools in 1999. Its use ended in children’s homes in 2001, local authority foster care in 2002 and early years provision in 2007. The Education and Skills Act 2008 amended the Education Act 1996 so that the ban on corporal punishment was extended to certain part-time independent educational institutions. However, this provision has not yet been implemented and there are a wide set of circumstances – ranging from part-time education and learning settings to evening and weekend faith schools and home learning – where this is no statutory prohibition on physical punishment. In these cases, adults may rely on the defence of ‘reasonable punishment’ if they were charged with common assault for smacking a child in their care. Some of the concerns about the use of physical punishment have arisen because of allegations about the treatment of children in part-time religious and supplementary schools. Ann Cryer MP argued in the House of Commons that ‘teachers in madrassas or in other religious schools’ should not be exempt from the ban on corporal punishment. It was argued that, while some parents may not object to
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IPPR | Inside madrassas: Understanding and engaging with British-Muslim faith supplementary schools