Teachers Reject Anti-Radicalisation Strategy

Teachers have rejected the Government's anti-radicalisation strategy saying it is a failure that will drive students underground and stifle free speech.

The National Union of Teachers wants to see the Prevent strategy, which requires teachers to report pupils to police if they suspect they are engaging in terrorist activity, withdrawn.

They say 90% of the 4,000 referrals made since it came into force last summer ended in no action being taken and it was stopping pupils being able to discuss issues in the classroom, driving them to look in "darker places".

:: Prevent Strategy 'Used To Target Young Muslims'

Some of the referrals have been widely criticised including the case of the four-year-old who misspelled "cucumber" as words resembling "cooker bomb" and the 10-year-old who mistakenly wrote he lived in a “terrorist house” rather than a "terraced house".

Rahmaan Mohammadi was referred under the Prevent strategy

Rahmaan Mohammadi, who was asked to speak at the conference, was questioned by anti-terrorism police at home when he was 16 because he wore a "Free Palestine" badge to school.

He has spoken about how Prevent makes young Muslims feel "paranoid" and "alienated" and told how his younger brother was asked by staff at Challney High School in Luton to warn him to stop being so "radical".

NUT executive member Alex Kenny, speaking at the union's annual conference in Brighton, said: "We want to keep children safe from those organisations who promote hatred and violence.

"But there are limits to what we can do, and Prevent is making that harder."

Members voted unanimously to back a motion asking the Government to review and produce an alternative strategy.

Teachers said pupils were becoming afraid of speaking out for fear of being put on a list and that students were going online to research issues, where they were at risk of being groomed by radicals.

Latest figures show, on average, two teachers call the Government hotline every school day over concerns a pupil may be becoming radicalised.

Teachers at the annual conference also:

:: Voted to scrap the school inspections body Ofsted and replace it with a "proper system of accountability" because it puts too much pressure on teachers.

:: Overwhelmingly opposed Government plans to force 17,000 primary schools to become academies by 2020 - 93% of head teachers, their deputies and assistants agreed it was "inappropriate".