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Row over schools shut for
Muslim, Sikh, Hindu days
LONDON: A London
council which shuts its schools on Muslim, Sikh and Hindu holy days
is rethinking its calendar.
One head teacher
told officials conducting a review into the closures she was
“frustrated” by the enforced holidays.
Waltham Forest
Council in East London closes its state schools on Eid-Ul-Fitr,
Diwali and Guru Nanak’s Birthday, which are celebrated by the
Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths respectively.
Controversy has
surrounded the closures as Jewish residents make up more of the
population than Sikhs, according to the last census, yet schools are
not closed on Jewish holy days.
One in six
Waltham Forest residents is Muslim, while Hindus make up only 1.8
per cent of the borough’s population.
Head teachers at
two Walthamstow schools, which are in the Waltham Forest borough,
criticised the closures.
Lynette Parvez,
head of Kelmscott School told officials conducting the review: “For
a school such as Kelmscott where the vast majority of pupils are
either Christian or Muslim, there is no need to take additional time
out for Diwali or Guru Nanak's gurpurab. “However, the school does
promote and celebrate these events allowing the very small number of
staff or pupils to have religious absence days if they request.”
Rachel
MacFarlane, head of Walthamstow School for Girls, told the review:
“We remain frustrated by the requirement on all schools, regardless
of the religious profile of the staff and student populations, to
close for Hindu, Muslim and Sikh festivals.”
Councillor
Liaquat Ali, Waltham Forest Council’s cabinet member for children,
accepted the need for a review.
21
October 2009
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