protection policies and health and safety policies in place, the survey also found that it is important that these policies are accompanied by relevant information, procedures and monitoring of effective implementation. Recommendation: Local authorities should facilitate access to madrassas so that demand is met. This could be achieved by registering madrassas on a local authority directory of supplementary schools so that parents can access details of local madrassas. Local councils could also support madrassas to locate on the sites of local state schools. There is no single system of registration for madrassas, and no single body which regulates their activities, although many are attached to mosques. Informal madrassas are likely to lack the resources to become integrated into the wider supplementary school network, remaining invisible to the wider community. This has added to uncertainty about the total number of madrassas and makes them particularly difficult for local authorities and researchers to engage with. An effective system of registration which brings madrassas into a single system of self-regulation would help to ensure that minimum standards are met and best practice is shared. It would also help to ensure greater interaction between madrassas and increase their ability to network with other organisations. Recommendation: MINAB should introduce a voluntary self-regulation scheme for madrassas. All members would then be subject to independent inspections by MINAB as part of its self-regulation organisational objectives. This would help to increase information on the number of madrassas and their needs, as well as support madrassas to build better connections. Recommendation: MINAB should play an active role in maintaining good teaching and child safety standards by selecting annually a list of ‘beacon madrassas’ around the UK that would serve as model madrassas for the less-formal ones. IPPR’s survey found that teaching within madrassas is heavily focused on the Quran and Islamic education. Nearly two-thirds also taught languages other than English, including Arabic, Urdu and Bengali. However, a significant minority of madrassas teach traditional school subjects, with 28 per cent providing support for national curriculum subjects. Teachers’ backgrounds also strengthen the role of madrassas as religious-focused institutions: over 75 per cent of those included in our survey use imams to teach; and the most popular requirement of teachers is that they undertake theological training. The criteria used for employing teachers within madrassas seems to vary and is a matter of individual choice for each madrassa. Only 10 per cent of madrassas we surveyed require no minimum level of training from their teaching staff. However, only 14 per cent demand their teachers have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) which is the formal qualification needed to teach in mainstream state schools. Instead, the most common requirement for teachers was that they have received some form of theological training, with 57 per cent saying this was part of their criteria. IPPR’s survey suggested that some madrassas depend on help from voluntary teachers, which limits the extent to which they can demand qualifications. Their low levels of funding also suggest that teacher training may be something madrassas cannot afford to fund themselves.
IPPR | Inside madrassas: Understanding and engaging with British-Muslim faith supplementary schools