7/Key strategic issues facing strictly Orthodox schools

The key strategic issues faced by central Orthodox and Progressive institutions discussed in Chapter 6 also affect, to a greater or lesser extent, schools in the strictly Orthodox sector. Nevertheless, there are specific issues relating to these schools, due to the fact that most are independent, form part of the most rapidly growing component of Anglo-Jewry and consider a Judaic education to be more important than a general education. The strict gender segregation in these schools means that the community needs twice the number of facilities and teachers, as well as managers and administrators. The splitting up of strictly Orthodox schools into a large number of institutions—catering for different Hasidic sects and other groupings—creates similar infrastructural problems.

The strictly Orthodox sector is not homogeneous.(1) It is composed of independent selective schools achieving some of the best academic results of all Jewish day schools, a few state-sector schools and a large number of non-selective independent schools, some of which are accommodated in very poor conditions and have low general curriculum teaching standards. Education is central to strictly Orthodox life, in terms of socializing children in the religion and in the 'ways of righteousness'.(2) To ensure the protection of strictly Orthodox ways of life within schools, especially in those towards the 'right' of the religious spectrum, the content of all books and materials that enter the classroom are monitored and approved, and discussion of issues such as the theory of evolution or Zionism is avoided or controlled. The sociologist Samuel Heilman explains the importance of this protective educational system in relation to strictly Orthodox schools in Israel: 

 

Among haredim [strictly Orthodox Jews], education was everything: the purpose of Jewish existence and at the same time a barrier against its decay. It was the essence of what they believed was demanded of them as Jews. To this end, they created a network of schools that embraced life from youth to old age and that, wherever possible, evaded the harmful influence of secular education—what was called by insiders 'alien wisdom' (chochmos chitzonios). In their schools the young were turned into haredim. They were taught to speak and write in a separate Haredi version of a Jewish language that kept outsiders at bay—Yiddish, encrusted with acronyms and insider expressions, even more than modern Hebrew. They were confirmed in their distinctive appearance and dress that made assimilation in the outside world impossible. They were introduced to their customs, folkways, values and versions of the life that made them conscious of their own traditions, which were also presented as the true Judaism. Anything short of that was 'putting darkness into light'.(3)

This chapter is based primarily on evidence from qualitative interviews with strictly Orthodox education providers and parents, and outlines the key issues facing this sector. In addition, evidence is taken from Her Majesty's Inspectors' (HMI) reports on four independent strictly Orthodox schools deemed to be 'failing'. These reports should not be seen as representative of the whole strictly Orthodox sector, but as a further piece of evidence indicating some of the problems faced by some non-selective, independent Jewish schools.

Provision of places

While the strictly Orthodox community constitutes around 10 per cent of the total UK Jewish population, just under half of all Jewish day schools are strictly Orthodox, with the number of pupils attending these schools doubling over the past decade. One in five synagogue marriages is now under strictly Orthodox auspices, and couples are encouraged by religious authorities and an understanding of religious commandments to have very large families. It is very common for couples to have seven, eight or more children. This demographic growth creates major educational challenges.

According to one strictly Orthodox headteacher, the strictly Orthodox community in London is growing at the rate of a class of thirty children per year: 'schools are full to capacity, they can't cope.' In Greater Manchester, there is a large and vibrant strictly Orthodox population located in and around Broughton Park, with some sixteen schools of various sizes and religious affiliations servicing a Jewish community of 6,000–7,000.(4) As the population has enlarged over the last thirty years or so, new schools have been established to cater for the increasing demand: as one interviewee jested, 'These days, it is no longer a question of finding the right school for your child, but building the right school.'

While major strictly Orthodox centres such as Stamford Hill and Golders Green in London and Broughton Park in Manchester face the challenge of educating so many children, other parts of the country face very different problems. In Glasgow, for example, there is a small 'rolling' community of strictly Orthodox Jews who typically stay in the city for a few years to study in the Giffnock-based kollel (college of advanced rabbinical studies). For such Jews, there can be major difficulties in educating their children. The kollel does have a small strictly Orthodox school, but the regular turnover of families means that it is often walking on a tightrope of institutional viability. If the school becomes untenable, the future of the strictly Orthodox community here is threatened.

Human resources

Recruiting staff
Because of the rapid increase in the number of strictly Orthodox schools, finding suitable teaching staff is problematic. Strictly Orthodox state-sector schools face similar problems to 'mainstream' institutions in terms of recruiting qualified general staff. For a number of independent strictly Orthodox schools, qualified staff are difficult to employ because of the costs involved. In girls' schools, there is a supply of young teachers from religious seminaries; but obtaining suitably qualified men to work in boys' schools is more problematic because of relatively low wages: 

 

There are problems of staff recruitment, big problems in recruiting male staff. The cost of living and the salaries offered make it very difficult to get male teachers to stay, especially in London . . . The community needs to change its priorities. (Principal of a strictly Orthodox London primary school)

For one headteacher of a strictly Orthodox state-sector school, difficulties in the recruitment of Jewish studies teachers in particular were seasonal, with the market 'flooded' in September but under-supplied during the rest of the year. Teachers for this school mostly come from local yeshivot and seminaries, with few having formal qualifications such as PGCEs and/or QTS. This headteacher argued that, in an ideal world, all such teachers would have formal teaching qualifications, but thought that this was 'a long way from being mandatory'.

Strictly Orthodox schools also suffer problems in recruiting suitably qualified senior managers and headteachers. According to one headteacher, the growth in the number of new schools has led to competition for senior staff, with institutions 'poaching' from each other and often appointing individuals with relatively little experience. This can be extremely serious in terms of dealing with issues such as statutory legislation, HMI inspections, local government requirements and provision for children with special educational needs (SEN: see Chapter 8). According to an HMI report, in one school 'poor quality of management contributes significantly to the serious weaknesses that have been identified in this inspection. In particular, the school has no individual who has overall responsibility for the education, safety and welfare of the children.'(5)

Standards of teaching
The academic achievements of pupils in a number of strictly Orthodox schools are detailed in Chapter 4, with a number of institutions achieving GCSE scores that are much higher than the national average. Nevertheless, many strictly Orthodox schools—particularly those that are very small, sometimes known as 'front-room' schools—do not enter any pupils for public examinations. Indeed, there appears to be a growing trend among Hasidic boys' schools not to enter pupils for GCSEs or GCEs; hence, females in these schools are often receiving a better secular education than males. The National Curriculum does not apply in most of these schools, and it is not possible to meta-analyse the quality of teaching in, say, talmudic studies. Evidence from the HMI reports suggests, however, that while Judaic teaching is usually strong, general curriculum teaching is sometimes given a low priority:

 

Standards in Hebrew studies are very good overall. Standards in secular studies are unsatisfactory and show considerable variation between classes.(6) Although there are occasional lapses into poor behaviour in some year groups, overall standards of behaviour are good and the school is an orderly community characterised by mutual respect. Pupils are well motivated in Hebrew studies, but that motivation is less evident in secular subjects.(7)

Other comments by inspectors referred to teaching being 'poorly planned', or pointed out that there was 'no differentiation of activity according to different ages' and that 'bright children are not stretched'. Nonetheless, in two of these schools in which parents were asked for views on their children's education, the responses were extremely positive, more so, in fact, than for state-sector Jewish schools as a whole. Using the scoring method outlined in Chapter 6, parents' satisfaction with the interaction they have with their school achieved an average mark of 4.6, and their satisfaction with the quality of the education reached 4.5 (out of a possible total of 5). Nevertheless, for the four schools assessed, HMI rated 25 to 50 per cent of the lessons as unsatisfactory.

The lack of quality in general curriculum teaching feeds into the fears of some interviewees that a rapidly growing number of individuals may struggle to find employment because they lack the necessary practical and academic skills. There are also concerns about the lack of educational provision for strictly Orthodox boys at secondary level. Currently, many boys stay in the school system only until age 12 or 13, after which they apparently move to yeshivot (institutes of higher learning) and hence outside the formal UK educational system.

Other concerns relate to the degree to which independent, non-selective strictly Orthodox schools meet their legal requirements, in regard, for example, to checking the status of teachers. All teachers and those 'working with children or young persons' are required by law to be checked on 'list 99', a national database of those with criminal records involving children. Schools are often not aware of their legal requirements, or are remiss in complying with them. This raises important concerns in this community about child protection.

Financing and accommodation

Funding questions are all-important to strictly Orthodox schools because the majority of them are independently financed with moneys coming largely from parental contributions and charitable donations. With many of these schools located in economically deprived areas, and with families often having to support large numbers of children, these issues are particularly relevant. For example, one headteacher recognized that because 60 per cent of its pupils are unable to pay full fees, the school struggles to fund top-class staff, as well as to provide adequate financial support in other areas, especially for students with SEN. Moreover, the inability to attract and pay staff with formal qualifications affects the chances of schools moving into the state sector: obtaining voluntary-aided status is very difficult without a supply of suitably qualified teaching staff. Nonetheless, one headteacher argued that, while a number of strictly Orthodox girls' schools are considering moving to the state sector, for boys' schools there is less demand, because this would involve accepting National Curriculum requirements for the amount of time spent teaching secular subjects. Many independent strictly Orthodox schools spend only a handful of hours per week (ranging between four and twelve hours) learning general curriculum subjects. 

A shortage of finances also means that many strictly Orthodox schools have inadequate—and occasionally dangerous— buildings and accommodation:

 

There is an adequate number of classrooms and administrative rooms for the present size of the school, but the state of decor of most rooms is poor. Although some of the larger holes in the plaster have recently been patched up, many rooms are marred by peeling paint or ceiling papers . . . The state of many of the switches and plugs throughout the building require attention and some electric wiring and sockets are exposed . . . Many of the rooms in the upper part of the building are in a very poor state of repair with bird droppings, sagging ceilings and unprotected sash windows. Although this area is normally out of bounds to pupils, they do have access in order to exchange library books.(8)

Conclusions

The strictly Orthodox education system is anything but homogeneous and includes a range of schools: state-sector and independent, high general academic achievers and schools in which little or no time is spent on general curriculum subjects and which are on the very edge of the national UK education system. While the Secretary of State for Education can serve a notice of complaint and then close down schools whose teaching or standards are not deemed 'suitable' or 'efficient', HMI generally tries to work with schools to maintain and improve standards. Nevertheless, there are serious policy questions for the strictly Orthodox community in terms of finding funds for the growth in the pupil population, and ensuring that teachers are suitably qualified and that students leave these institutions able to gain paid employment and so financially support their families and their communities.

Notes

1 See Oliver Valins, 'Identity, Space and Boundaries: Ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Contemporary Britain', Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 1999; Oliver Valins, '"Us" and "them"?: stereotyping ultra-Orthodoxy', Judaism Today, vol. 12, 1999, 4–7.

2 See Oliver Valins, 'Institutionalised religion: sacred texts and Jewish spatial practice', Geoforum, vol. 31, 2000, 575–86.

3 Samuel Heilman, Defenders of the Faith (London: Arnold 1992).

4 Valins, 'Identity, Space and Boundaries'. Note that the overall Jewish population in Manchester is estimated to be 30,000.

5 Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Talmud Torah (Beis Schlomo) (London: OFSTED 1997).

6 Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Jewish Senior Boys' School (Keser Torah) (London: OFSTED 1998).

7 Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Talmud Torah.