By Elham Asaad Buaras
Last year Muslim faith schools surpassed national averages in modern foreign languages and 5+ A* - C GCSE percentage indicators. For the last three years, one of the Muslim schools has been recognised by the Government as one of the top 100 highest achieving schools in the country.
According to statistics exclusively compiled by The Muslim News, 71 per cent of the 1,683 students who sat their GCSE (and equivalent) in Muslim schools and colleges attained at least one A* to C grade in a modern language, 26 per cent higher than the national average.
Muslim boys’ schools excelled in modern languages: 79 per cent of boys who sat their exam in Muslim boys’ schools achieved at least one A* to C grade in a modern foreign language (MFL); Muslim girls schools achieved a 71 per cent A* to C MFL pass rate average; co-ed Muslim schools lag behind with 59 per cent, although this is still 4 per cent higher than the national average.
And 61 per cent of students in Muslim schools and colleges attained 5 or more A* to C grades [including English and Maths], 11 per cent higher than the national average of 50 per cent.
Students attending Muslim schools are also excelling in underperforming local authorities; in 2009 the Tower Hamlets authority had a 46 per cent 5 or more A* to C pass rate (4 percent lower than the national average).
The statistics are particularly poor for the Tower Hamlets Muslim community who constitute 36.4 per cent of the population (the largest Muslim population out of all local authorities).
However, the East end borough’s five Muslim schools Jamiatul Ummah School, London East Academy, London Islamic School, Madani Secondary Girls School and Mazahirul Uloom School, had a 63 per cent 5 or more A* to C average pass rate.
Fifty four of 63 schools featured in The Muslim News performance table had every student achieve at least one qualification.
The results are more notable by the fact that only 5 of the 63 Muslim schools and colleges featured are voluntary aided (i.e. are recipients of contributions by a state-funded foundation or trust).
With exception of the average point score per student, Muslim schools outperformed the national average in all the other performance indicators.
One school that exceeded the national average point score is voluntary aided Tauheedul Islam Girls School (TIGS). Ninety eight per cent of the 60 girls who sat their exam in the Blackburn based school had attained 5 or more A* to C pass rate and a 531.6 average point score. [Average point score is the total points scored divided by the number of students]
For the last three consecutive years, TIGS has been recognised by the Government as one of the top 100 highest achieving schools in the country and was awarded the Humanities Specialist Status last year.
This is based on the contextual value-added score which measures students’ progress, taking into account factors such as gender, prior ability and level of deprivation.
Principal and Chief Executive of the school Hamid Patel told The Muslim News the school’s success has led to 5 applications for each place offered by the school.
“Being recognised as one of the top schools in the country is always nice. However, the most important driver for everyone at Tauheedul is a commitment to not just achieving excellence, but sustaining it.”
Patel believes the school’s success is also based in its ability to offer an environment “where spiritual intelligence can develop, where pastoral support is personalised to the needs of each student and where academic intervention is focused, driven by data and a real ambition for everyone to succeed. This is often lacking in many mainstream schools.”
There is little separating the performance of Muslim boys’ and girls’ schools and colleges. On average 65 per cent of boys who studied in male-only schools walked away with 5 or more A*to C grades compared to a 63 per cent pass rate for girls and 50 per cent for co-ed Muslim schools.
It should be noted however that almost a thousand girls sat their exams in Muslim girls’ schools compared to 339 boys sitting their exams in Muslim boys’ schools.
One of the high achieving Muslim girls school is Rochdale Girls School.
By gaining 71 per cent 5 or more A* to C grades, Rochdale Girls School outperformed Hollingworth Business and Enterprise College, the best achieving Rochdale school based school, by 9 per cent and its local authority average by 23 per cent.
Head teacher of the Muslim school, Abdul Razzak, told The Muslim News his schools success in 2009 has led to oversubscription.
“We are also delighted with achievements at individual level. Two of our students, Aisha Begum and Tahsin Akhtar, gained 10A*s plus an A and 5A*s, 5A’s plus a B respectively,” said Razzak.
He also paid tribute to the schools’ staff and student for achieving “so much with very limited financial and human resources.”
He added that the school’s religious ethos coupled with its strong discipline policy also contributed to its success.
“We give each pupil individual attention, especially the weaker ones. We build their self esteem and set high, but achievable goals for them. We also work with parents by getting their help to support their children. Our strategy is paying off as we have improved our results year on year.”
Brondesbury College for Boys is among the best achieving Muslim boys schools. All the 12 students who sat their exam in the Brent based school attained 5 or more A* to C grades, that is 43 per cent higher than the Brent average.
Other highflying boys’ schools include Darul Uloom Al Arabiya Al Islamiya in Bury, Darul Uloom Leicester, Jamiatul Ummah School in Tower Hamlets and Jamiatul-Ilm Wal-Huda UK School in Blackburn, all achieving 80 per cent or above 5 or more A* to C [including English and Math] pass rate.
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