School board to be sacked for 'Muslim only' agenda

A school in Birmingham is expected to become the first in Britain to have its entire governing body sacked under new government powers after an 18-month row over religion threatened to tear it apart.

A damning report for the city's education authority into Washwood Heath Technology College found that a group of Muslim governors with a "hidden agenda" was trying to turn it into a Muslim-only school.

The comprehensive is likely to be taken over by the city council because of complaints that a small group of governors had tried to force out white staff and appoint Asian teachers in their place.

The board of governors is to be sacked by Birmingham City Council and replaced with a hand-picked board of five educational experts, under legislation that comes into force next month.

The bitter divisions at the school, where 70 per cent of the 1,253 pupils are Muslim and 85 per cent are from ethnic minorities, have already driven the headteacher and more than half the teachers to quit.

Teachers had complained that job interviews seemed to favour Asian applicants and claimed that a clique of governors was attempting to establish an all-Muslim school.

The report concluded that governors had a "clear agenda to appoint more Asian staff regardless of their suitability". It added: "Some staff stated that Asian staff in other schools had been approached prior to formal recruitment and selection. This was seen as evidence that there were efforts to establish a Muslim school, which did not have any white pupils or white teachers."

The catalyst for the unprecedented dismissal of the governors was the release of a damning Ofsted report. Government inspectors concluded that the school – a large comprehensive in a deprived area – was failing to provide an acceptable standard of education – mainly because of conflict involving the governors.

In an almost uniquely critical report, Ofsted's inspectors blamed the fractured relationships between governors, the senior management team and the local education authority for "considerable disharmony.

"The conflict has made life very difficult for everyone in the school," the report said. "The situation has had a profound effect upon school improvement and the quality of education provided."

But the governors deny trying to alter the ethnic make-up. They argue that the dispute was part of a legitimate attempt to tackle poor management at Washwood Heath.

Mohammed Yasin, one of the governors, has said: "We had no confidence in the head. Teachers left because of the management of the school, not because of the governors."

The city council has appealed to Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary, whose Yardley constituency borders the school, for permission to invoke new legislation that would allow them to sack the governors and replace them with an interim executive board appointed by the council.

The problems began early last year when governors criticised James Collins, the head at the time. In April 2001 Tim Brighouse, Birmingham's director of education, commissioned Shahid Malik, an Asian member of the Labour Party national executive, to chair an independent inquiry. Mr Malik was arrested during last year's race riots in Burnley but was not charged and complained about his treatment by police.

His review concluded that the headteacher had been unfairly treated, but in December Mr Collins resigned, followed by half of his staff. Mr Collins took a new post within the local education authority, and now co-ordinates the government's strategy for pupils aged 11 to 14 throughout the city.