評論
打印
Muslims and education
穆斯林與教育
Religious studies
宗教學習
Giving schools more autonomy and encouraging religious groups to run them will produce the occasional disaster
給與學校過多自治權并鼓勵宗教組織經營學校都有可能帶來災難
In Birmingham, the watchers weren't watching
在伯明翰，觀察者們并沒有盡到責任。
IT IS known as the Trojan Horse plot, but it may have been less subtle. Late in 2013 an anonymous letter was uncovered, outlining a hardline Muslim plan to “overthrow” teachers and governors in several Birmingham state schools and replace them with people who would run the schools on orthodox Islamic lines. The furore has grown, eventually involving Peter Clarke, once the head of counter-terrorism in London's Metropolitan Police, who will lead a government investigation.
穆斯林曾以特洛伊木馬的劇情而聞名，但如今已經不再那么敏感了。2013年末一封匿名信被曝光，大致描述了一個強硬派穆斯林的計劃，這項計劃針對于一些伯明翰公立學校“推翻”教師和政府，并且讓可以以正統伊斯蘭教習俗來經營學校的人來取而代之。這已經激起民憤并難以平息，終牽涉到了皮特克拉克，他是將牽頭一個政府調查的前倫敦都市警察反恐領頭人。
The letter may be a fake, but something has certainly gone wrong in Birmingham's schools. Leaked reports about several academies (schools that are state-funded but independently run) by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, suggest that in some classrooms boys and girls are seated apart, that sex education is ignored and the theory of evolution dismissed. Ofsted is investigating 25 schools in the city. This is more than a local problem, because it hints at flaws in England's otherwise rather commendable education reforms. What has gone wrong in Birmingham is related to what has gone right elsewhere.
信件或許可以造假，但是伯明翰的學校確實已經有些不對勁了。學校檢查機關英國教育標準局關于幾所學校（雖是公立學校但是獨立經營）的報告被泄露，報告指出一些教室男孩女孩是分開坐的，性教育被忽視并且進化論也被駁回。教育標準局正在調查伯明翰25所學校。這已經不僅僅是地方問題了，因為這意味著英國原本被值得稱道的教育改革出現了裂痕。在伯明翰出現的問題或許是別的地方還未被發現的問題。
The last, Labour, government set some schools free from control by local authorities, which had often run them shoddily. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that has run Britain since 2010 has gone much further. About 60% of secondary schools are now independent academies. A further 173 are “free schools”, never under local-government control. Parents and local business folk have been encouraged to become more involved in running schools. So too have religious groups.
最后，工黨和政府建立了一些學校來擺脫地方當局的控制，因為地方當局對于經營學校一直都不上心。保守黨和自由民主黨聯合政府自2010年掌控英國以來已經獲得很大成就。大約60%的中學如今已成為獨立學院。還有173所學校是“自由院校”，不在地方當局管控之下。聯合政府鼓勵家長和當地商業人士更加致力于參與經營學校。這也同樣鼓勵了宗教組織。
Their influence is both formal and informal. Formally, Anglicans, Catholics and Jews, who have long run state schools, are being joined by others. Between 2011 and 2013 there were 831 applications to open free schools. The British Humanist Association, a secular outfit, has identified the religious affiliation—or lack thereof—of 659 of the applicants. They include 32 linked to the Church of England, almost half of which were approved. Fully 80 Muslim groups applied to run schools, although just five were granted approval (none of the schools under review in Birmingham is a religious school).
他們以正規和非正規的方式影響著辦校問題。正式來講，一直以來經營公立學校的圣公會信徒、天主教徒和猶太教徒，正得到其他人的積極加入。在2011年至2013年期間關于開設自由院校有831份申請。英國人文主義協會（一個民間機構）已從中確定659份申請的宗教信仰與否。這其中包括32份與英國國教有關聯，而這32份申請有一半已經被比準。盡管只有5份穆斯林組織申請獲得批準（這5份伯明翰審查的申請無一是宗教學校），但還有整整80份穆斯林組織申請經營學校。
Informally, Muslim parents are becoming more involved in schools of all sorts. In the London borough of Tower Hamlets, the Collective of Bangladeshi School Governors encourages it. Ibrahim Mogra, a Leicester imam who has served as a governor in several schools, says that religious schools are unnecessary: instead, Muslim parents should keep in touch with schools to ensure that the curriculum is taught in a way that does not cause anxiety.
同時，穆斯林家長正以各種非正規方式滲透進學校。在倫敦陶爾哈姆萊茨區，孟加拉國學校理事團體鼓勵這種滲透。曾在幾個學校就職理事的萊斯特伊瑪目易卜拉欣·莫格拉稱宗教學校的設立沒有必要；相反，穆斯林家長應該與學校保持聯系以確保課程的進行不會造成恐慌。
Much of this is to the good. Bangladeshis' exam results have improved so dramatically in recent years that they now outscore whites in GCSE exams taken at 16—astonishing for a mostly working-class group. But there have been calamities, too. An explicitly Muslim free secondary school in Derby was closed earlier this year following criticism of poor education standards and discrimination towards female staff. Muslim schools are trickier to handle than Anglican or Catholic ones, because British Islam varies so much in interpretation. Without clear structures of central authority, schools vary, and zealots can spy an opportunity to take over.
境況大大的好轉。孟加拉國人的考試結果近年來提高得驚人，如今在16歲學生參加的普通中等教育證書考試中得分已經超過白人學生，這讓以工薪階層為主的人們震驚了。但這也帶來了災難。德比一所正統穆斯林自由中學因外界對其關于糟糕的教育標準和歧視女性員工的批評于今年早些時候關閉。穆斯林學校的問題比英國國教和天主教學校更加棘手，因為英國的伊斯蘭有太多不同的說法。中央集權若沒有明確的教育結構，學校就會變化，狂熱者們也會等待機會將這些學校取而代之。
The Birmingham affair has also highlighted gaps in the inspection regime. The Department for Education is responsible for free schools and academies, but as their numbers soar it is increasingly hard to keep track of what is going on in them. Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted's head, has argued that as schools become more autonomous some kind of stronger local oversight is needed, so that problems can be caught and dealt with more quickly.
伯明翰事務也凸顯出了檢視機制之間的鴻溝。教育部門對自由院校和學校負有責任，但當這些院校的數量飛漲的時候，追蹤它們的狀況就會變得愈發困難。教育標準局帶頭人麥克·威爾蕭強調學校越來越自治便需要更強的當地監管，因此便能更加快速找出并解決問題。
Even if that happens, the difficulty of running any kind of religiously inspired school in an increasingly secular country grows. Politicians have smiled on faith schools. Many do not. A poll last year by YouGov put popular support for state funding of religious schools at just 32%.
即使災難發生，在這個越發世俗的國家經營任何受宗教影響的學校都不是易事并且難度越來越大。政治家們對教會學校持樂觀態度。但很多人卻并非如此。YouGov（英國的民調機構）去年就支持國家資助宗教學校的支持率舉行了一項民意調查，僅有32%的人支持這項資助。譯者：邵夏沁 校對：張娣
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