Department delivers scathing report on Dublin Muslim school

A REPORT by Department of Education inspectors on the North Dublin Muslim National School in Cabra delivers a scathing assessment.
In the most significant finding, the report says accounts of the school’s finances since its inception are not available. It is not possible, it says, to ascertain how money from the department has been spent.
Established in 2001, the school is a 12-teacher co-educational, national school under the patronage of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland.
The inspectors report a significant decrease in enrolment since 2006 when the school first attracted negative coverage in the media. At that time, it was reported that then taoiseach Bertie Ahern had expressed concerns about management of the school, which is in his constituency.
The school has never had a permanent principal and there has been a continual turnover of staff. The whole mainstream teaching staff resigned in June 2008. The board has had to make 12 appointments since then.
No member of the teaching staff has completed their probationary period; only four of the teachers are fully qualified within the Irish system.
The Muslim school is situated in rented accommodation on the grounds of St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys. All of the pupils are of the Muslim faith. For the vast majority, English is not their first language and for some, it is a second or third language.
The inspectors report how extra personnel are employed by the board to teach religion with 45 minutes daily dedicated to teaching the Koran and Arabic with senior classes also attending prayers for 20 minutes. The inspectors say this impinges on curriculum delivery time.
In a finding which symbolises the poor procedures at the school, the inspectors could not clarify the precise number of students. The principal reported that 107 pupils were enrolled last September but the inspectors point to inconsistencies and anomalies in various roll books.
In its response, the school board of management says it is still seeking financial records from the previous board. Overall, it says it welcomes the inspectors’s findings and says it will “proceed in building an outstanding school in terms of academic work and in terms of promoting an Islamic ethos”.
Damning findings: main points

تدني المستوى العام للتدريس والتعليم
A poor overall standard of teaching and learning;

ليس هناك اسلوب تعليمي واضح يركز على تحصيل وتطور ونجاح التلميذ
No evidence of an ethos that focuses on pupil achievement, development and success;
Poor staff morale; وان الجو العام للموظفين ليس مشجع
Clear breaches of the Rules for National School; عدم اتباع للقوانين للمدارس القومية
No evidence of the monitoring of pupil absences. An examination of the roll books shows that significant numbers of pupils are absent for a considerable portion of the school year; ليس هناك سجل عياب واضح, وانه هناك كثير من التلاميذ غائبين على مدى فتراة طويلة في السنة الدراسية.
The school is in breach of department guidelines with regard to the length of the school day; والمدرسة قد تعدت القانون في طول اليوم الدراسي
The board of management will not allow the school to implement the music curriculum; امناء المدرسة منعوا منهج التعليمي الموسيقي من التدريس.
Several policies that relate to the care, welfare and protection of children and that are required by legislation, have not been formulated; عدم تطبيق عدة سياسات تخص العناية والرعاية, وحماية الاطفال وهي مطلوبة تشريعيا
Significant weaknesses in the leadership of the school, reflected in a number of areas including school and classroom planning, curriculum implementation and teaching and learning. ضعف القيادة للمدرسة واضحة في الفصول الدراسية ووتطبيق المنهج والتدريس والتعليم.

Irish Times
SEÁN FLYNN, Education Editor

O'Keeffe criticised on Dublin school

The Irish National Teachers Organisation has strongly criticised the Department of Education over conditions at a Dublin primary school for Muslim pupils.
A Department inspection report has found that the quality of teaching English and Irish at the North Dublin Muslim School in Cabra was “poor” or “very poor” and that morale among teachers was “very poor”.
Among its other findings, the report ruled that sanitary facilities were “inadequate” in the building, which formerly housed the School for the Deaf, and that child protection policies were not properly implemented.
The school caters for about 100 pupils.
A spokesman for Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said this morning he was “very concerned about the serious weaknesses” described in the report, which is to be published tomorrow. He said the Minister was seriously concerned at the “unacceptable” management and teaching standards at the school and “inadequate” child protection measures.
The spokesman said officials from the Department have held two meetings with the patron of the school and the chairperson of the board to emphasise the need for swift action on their part to ensure improvement in the operation of the school. “The Minister is heartened to hear that at these meetings the patron and chairperson accepted the findings and recommendations in the report and their confirmation that the current board of management is fully committed to improving the school,” the spokesman said. He said school representatives have taken “a number of positive immediate steps” to address the shortcomings in the school”. These include putting an effective child protection policy in plan, regularising the school day and making provision for some subjects such as music that were not being taught at the time of the inspection. The school has also advertised for a permanent principal. The spokesman said Department officials will be regularly monitoring the situation at the school.
This morning, the INTO general secretary John Carr claimed the Department had failed to provide the school’s management with the necessary support and has made “no significant intervention” despite being aware of problems at the school.
He said the union wrote to the Department in 2004 complaining of irregularities in the employment of teachers and raised these concerns again the following year. The union also informed the authorities that the then Board of Management was in breach of employment and equality legislation.
However, Mr Carr said, the Department failed to act on these warnings.
“The Minister should be held to account because the Department knew for at least five years about problems in the school yet nothing was done,” Mr Carr claimed.

KILIAN DOYLE
Irish Times

The Islamic Foundation of Ireland

Statement in response to Joe Duffy’s Liveline show on the subject of Muslim schools
We would like to express our deep concern about the RTE Radio 1, being a respectable
national radio station giving free air time to two persons spreading false accusations
against two respectable Muslim institutions namely the Islamic Foundation of Ireland
and the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.
We were surprised that someone like Mr. Kamel Ghanem who has no qualification
whatsoever in evaluating scholastic standards can be allowed to give judgement on
standards of education in the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh in contradiction to
the views of professional school evaluators of the Department of Education. A whole
school evaluation was carried on the School two years ago and was very positive.
Mr. Ghanem also made very serious allegations about financial records insinuating
irregularities about the School finances. The School accounts are audited by chartered
accountants and made available to the Department of Education and Science and any
concerned person who has an interest in them.
Mr. Ghanem stated that secondary school teachers have expressed the views that the
standard of education of students coming from the Muslim National School in
Clonskeagh is low. It is inconceivable that secondary school teachers would openly
make such a prejudicial statement. Unfortunately such irresponsible allegations can
have their repercussions on our past, present and future Muslim students and our
teachers in the School.
The issue of the Mosque finances not being disclosed for public scrutiny was brought up
during the show by Mr. Liam (Mujahid) Egan. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland is a
registered 'Friendly Society' and is a recognised charity. The accounts of the Islamic
Foundation of Ireland for the year 2008 have already been submitted to the Registry of
Friendly Societies. They were posted on the notice board in the Mosque a week before
the Society's last annual general meeting, presented during the meeting and are always
made available for inspection by the members of the Society as required.
There is no doubt that the vicious attack by Mr. Ghanem on the Islamic Foundation of
Ireland and the Muslim schools is prompted by personal dispute with the School Patron
and the Chairman of the Board of Management. Mr. Ghanem’s conduct is a subject of
Garda investigation following an assault which happened in the offices of the Islamic
Foundation of Ireland on South Circular Road. As for Mr. Egan his continued
unwarranted attack on the Imam is well documented.
Many members of the Muslim community are aware of the grudges which both men
hold who have been consistently causing difficulties.
In the circumstances, Mr. Ghanem and Mr. Egan’s allegations are frivolous, untrue,
founded in ulterior motives, and should be totally disregarded as the words of
disgruntled and disaffected persons. Accordingly their complaints should be treated
with the contempt they deserve.
Islamic Foundation of Ireland
22/06/2009.



The Islamic Foundation of Ireland
Statement Re. North Dublin Muslim National School
The North Dublin Muslim National School was opened in 2001. The School was
initially intended to be established under a different patronage body other than the
Islamic Foundation of Ireland. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland offered support and
assistance to the School. In December 2007 when no alternative patronage body was
established, and the situation in the School management became untenable, the Islamic
Foundation of Ireland decided to take an active role.
In December 2007 a new Board of management was formed and since then the Board
has been working to improve the conditions which it had inherited from the previous
management.
Since the Whole School Evaluation Report was made by the inspectors of the
Department of Education and Science and a number of specific issues were brought to
the attention of the Board, discussions have been held between the School
representatives and officials of the Department of Education and Science. A number of
issues outlined in the report have been already addressed. These include:
 Child protection policy: Training has been provided to the staff on child
protection policy with the assistance of support services of the Department of
Education and Science. A policy has been developed and would be formally
ratified by the Board of Management at its next meeting.
 The Board of Management has made a decision to address the issue of time
allocated for curricular subjects to ensure that 5 hours and 10 minutes for
curricular subjects excluding religious education would be provided as required
by the regulations. The Board has also decided that qualified class teachers would
remain with their classes while religious instruction is being provided by religious
education teachers.
 The school has developed curricular plans for maths, music and Irish and these
have been approved by the Board of Management.
 The Board has made a decision that curricular plans for all other subjects would
be available by December 2009.
 On the issue of school accounts a summary accounts covering the period from
January 2008 to present day has been prepared and forwarded to the Department
of education and Science.
 The School Board has established that some of the unpaid bills to the Department
of Education and Science for light and heat had in fact applied to two schools, the
North Dublin Muslim School and another school on the same site. The Board
believe that it would be unfair of the Department to financially penalise the
current pupils in the school in respect of payments due in respect of previous
periods. The Board has discussed with the Department of Education the
repayment of money owed, and is willing to schedule payment.
 Certain measures have been taken to improve the current accommodation and at
the same time the Board is in discussion with the school parents over the
possibility of re-locating the School to another site.
 The School which has been under the patronage of the Islamic Foundation of
Ireland proper since its establishment in 1990 is the Muslim National School in
Clonskeagh. A recent evaluation report on the School was published. We refer
you to that report.
Islamic Foundation

Kamel Ghanam's is here: I was both disappointed and surprised that the IFI has apparently chosen this disparaging attitude in their latest attempts to offset the growing criticism being levelled against the Patron who is also their President, Trustee, Chairman, and Imam.While I admit to having no qualification in evaluating scholastic standards, and that would place me on a par with Patron and many who now make up the current board of management including the Chairperson of the Board of Management etc. I do however have the most important qualification – that of a concerned parent. As a parent I feel adequately qualified to evaluate the standard of education imparted to my children previously when compared with the school they are attending now. I don’t believe I made any insinuations regarding the finances bar the fact that as a parent I and others simply haven’t seen any financial reports despite requests. Contrary to the improbability postulated by the IFI/Patron regarding statements by secondary school teachers – the recent WSE reports demonstrate that such incidences are indeed possible. I do not as yet have the experience of my children progressing to the second level school but I have been reliably informed by other parents of past pupils that when their children went to the secondary schools they encountered problems there.I believe the Muslim community is acutely aware of the growing concerns, and not merely on account of two people as you allege. My only motive in this affair is the future of our children. It is regrettable that the IFI/Patron has not demonstrated similar convictions. I do not believe that my comments were frivolous, or untrue. The only objective was to highlight our desire to improve our children’s education and future as good Irish citizens. Patron I challenge you to a live television debate!______________________________________________________________________________________________

Muslim school is slated Patron claims report is 'too critical' and 'over the top'

A TEAM of experts will be sent in to monitor the overhaul of a primary school which has been strongly criticised in the most damning inspection report ever issued by the Department of Education.
The unprecedented move follows a litany of shocking revelations contained in an inspection report into the North Dublin Muslim School in Cabra, which is housed in the former School for the Deaf.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe last night said the standards of management, teaching and learning at the school were "unacceptable" and that child protection policies were "inadequate".
The findings -- the most critical of nearly 3,000 inspection reports issued by the department -- are set to cause alarm within Ireland's 32,000-strong Muslim community.
The report -- seen by the Irish Independent -- will be officially published tomorrow. It reveals:
Taxpayers' money given to the school in the form of grants since it opened in 2001 is unaccounted for;
The quality of teaching of English, Irish and maths is "poor" or "very poor", with teacher morale "very poor";
Sanitary facilities are "inadequate;
The school is in breach of several pieces of legislation;
The school refuses to implement the music curriculum.
Separate correspondence, also seen by the Irish Independent, reveals that the school failed to pay around €37,000 it owed to the department.
To recover some of the money, the department withheld payment of the capitation grant in June 2008 and threatened to do so again recently.
Critical
The patron of the school, Imam Yahya Al-Hussein, said the report was too critical and a bit "over the top".
He said the current board of management, appointed last November, inherited the problems and was trying to solve them. The former board chairperson Shahzad Ahmed was unavailable for comment last night.
The draft inspection report says that no financial accounts are available since the school opened and there is little physical evidence of where state grants have been spent.
The current acting principal (the fourth since it opened) has still not completed the probationary process. All the mainstream teaching staff resigned last June and the board made 12 new appointments. No member of the teaching staff had completed the probationary period at the time of the inspection on November 28 -- only four of them are fully qualified within the Irish system.
The report says that the school is unable to provide support for newly qualified teachers or those experiencing professional difficulties.
Several policies that relate to the care, welfare and protection of children have not been drawn up. The school is in breach of the Education Welfare Act (2000) and of the Rules for National Schools.
The report says there are no policies on attendance; child protection; social personal and health education and on the duties of special needs assistants. The Relationships and Sexuality Education programme has not been implemented. There are no plans for assessment; for English as an additional language; for visual arts, physical education; drama and music.
The North Dublin school is one of two schools catering for the Muslim community. Pupil numbers there have fallen significantly since 2006, the report says. However, the report found inconsistencies between class roll books, the attendance book and the register of pupils.
Since 2006 almost 3,000 inspection reports have been published by the department on its website. There are two kinds of reports: single subjects; and Whole School Evaluation (WSE) such as that prepared for the North Dublin Muslim National School.
The inspectors review the quality of school management, school planning and the quality of learning and teaching. There have been a few very critical reports, mainly at post-primary level, but none come anywhere near this one in terms of the directness of the language and the criticism.
It represents a significant step change in the approach taken by the department whose lawyers checked and double checked the report before agreeing to its publication.
- John Walshe Education Editor
Wednesday June 17 2009

Experts sent to monitor North Dublin Muslim School

Education officials have been sent to monitor improvements at the North Dublin Muslim School after it was recently condemned in the "most damning inspection report ever issued" by the department of education.According to the Irish Independent, teaching standards at the school were branded as unacceptable, while child protection procedures were deemed inadequate.Among other things, the report revealed that some of the money given to the school in recent years has not been accounted for.In addition, the school had previously refused to implement the Irish music curriculum.School patron Iman Yahya Al-Hussein has branded the report as "over the top" and said the current board of management had inherited many of the school's problems.According to Islamireland.com, the school was opened in 2001 with three classrooms and three teachers and was the second state-funded Muslim school to be opened in the Irish capital.


SchoolDays Newshound

Why I'm so proud of our Muslim school Dublin principal highlights its academic and sporting successes

Wednesday June 24 2009
From the outside it looks like any other Irish national school. There are words in Irish posted on the classroom walls, paintings by children decorate the assembly hall and some of the school facilities are in prefabs.
But in other ways this is no ordinary national school. All the pupils, whether Irish-born or from abroad, are children of Islamic parents.
They learn Arabic as well as English and Irish.
They receive Islamic instruction, and the older pupils attend prayers every day in the neighbouring mosque.
A large number of the girls in the co-ed school wear headscarves.
On Monday, when I visited the

Muslim National School in Clonskeagh, Dublin, the entire school and many parents assembled for a sixth class graduation.
Their ceremony included Islamic songs and prayers, the Irish rugby anthem 'Ireland's Call' and a sketch about travelling on the 46A bus.
There was a cheerful, celebratory atmosphere as the children looked forward to the summer.
The Muslim National School in Clonskeagh has moved swiftly to defend its reputation after another Islamic School on the northside of Dublin was severely criticised in a Government report.
The North Dublin Muslim School in Cabra was slated last week by the Department of Education in an inspection report. The Cabra school was criticised on a raft of issues, including poor teaching standards, lax accounting procedures and inadequate child protection policies.
In the wake of the controversy over the Cabra school, there have also been criticisms of the Clonskeagh school from some quarters.
A former parent of pupils at the school appeared on Joe Duffy's Liveline on RTE to complain about academic standards at the school, and certain other management practices.
But this week, the principal of the Clonskeagh school, Colm McGlade, was keen to outline how his pupils are being well served with a high standard of teaching and good facilities.
He was anxious to open the doors of the school to show that it is functioning properly.
While the Cabra Muslim school has been damned by a whole school evaluation by the department, the Clonskeagh school received a much more positive evaluation by inspectors.
The 2006 evaluation highlighted perceived strengths in the school. These included:
"Professionalism of the principal, teacher and school staff in their work and their commitment to the ongoing development of the school.''
"Responsiveness and enthusiasm of the pupils."
"The very good work taking place in many areas of the curriculum ... and providing for pupils with a wide range of abilities and particular language needs.''
On the other hand, the 2006 report highlighted "serious difficulties in the functioning of the board of management'' and the need for extra language support.
Colm McGlade says these issues have been addressed since the inspection was carried out.
Although all the pupils come from Islamic backgrounds, the school is one of the most diverse in the country when it comes to nationality. There are pupils from 20 different countries in the school.
Colm McGlade says the language issue is a major challenge for the school.
"We have pupils coming to us who do not speak English at all. They could be involved with four languages. For example, a pupil from Pakistan might have spoken Urdu in his country.
"At school he or she will be learning English, Irish and Arabic. We teach Arabic here, because it is the language of the Koran.
"We now have six language support teachers in the school.''
The school teaches the Irish primary school curriculum, but there are certain restrictions.
Music teaching is limited, because wind and stringed instruments are not allowed in the school in order to comply with Islamic teaching.
"To say that we do not do music is completely untrue,'' says Colm McGlade. "We have had a choir that has performed for the President.''
In PE, dance is not allowed, again as a result of Muslim strictures.
However, Colm McGlade is proud of the school's record in sports, pointing to successes in such activities as athletics and Olympic Handball.
Although Islamic and Arabic instruction is given in the school by part-time teachers, the principal and and the core teaching staff are non-Islamic.
"I taught at a Catholic school for 19 years before I came here. I see this as a normal national school, like any other.''
While some critics are bound to have reservations about pupils in an Irish national school receiving Islamic instruction, there are also critics from within the Islamic community who believe the school is not hardline enough.
"There are may different strands in Islam,'' says Mohamed Jimani, chairman of the school's board of governors. "That can cause certain tensions, because there are people from different cultures who might want a different emphasis.''
With only two Muslim schools in the country, and one of them under a cloud, there is now a huge demand for places at the school. Every year there are 160 children competing for 35 places.
"I think the high number of pupils on the waiting lists shows the quality of education we are providing,'' says Colm McGlade.
"If we were not providing a decent standard of education parents would not be sending their children here.''
- Kim Bielenberg