Post by Bartonite on Jan 8, 2016 11:16:07 GMT
I'm writing the text below in response to an article in the Citizen, Shake up to GCSE and A-Level schedule to fit with Ramadan, because I know if I put it in one comment on their page, it would get scrunched up into a hard to read block of text (despite my asking them to fix this problem yonks ago):
There are claims today (Summer exams will not be fitted around Ramadan, confirm boards) that this article, and similar ones in 'the Daily Mail, Sun and Daily Telegraph', are misleading, stating that no changes are going to be made to the timetables, and that it had been drafted over a year ago. Actually, this is misleading too, because the Guardian article linked to (and the Grauniad also published the original story, not just the rightwing press) also states that alterations were made for Ramadan, although bizarrely, some exams were moved into that period. Therefore the articles are only inaccurate if they suggest future changes, and the Citizen only does that by using language which suggests the changes are not a done deal ('Students in Gloucester may be sitting key exams earlier this year', and the like).
Actually, all these articles seem to miss a pretty important point, which is that whatever time around Ramadan exams take place, there should be no obligation for pupils to fast anyway. Any assumptions to the contrary may lead to scenes like the one reported last summer, where a teacher refused to allow non-Muslim children to drink water during blistering weather because it would 'upset' others who were fasting. Let's be clear, that's abuse when a teacher does it to his/her charges, or when parents does it to their own kids, whatever their religion, and it shouldn't be excused in any way.
In any case, given complaints that bringing exams forward is unfair because pupils will have less time to revise, and that Ramadan keeps arriving earlier too, wouldn't it have made more sense to push the exams backward instead, and sort out the problem for the foreseeable future? The answer to that may be that it would push the exams into the summer holidays. That being so, the best answer is to stop manufacturing a problem, and for Muslim leaders to make it clear to schools that no child would be expected to fast at such an important time in their lives.
There are claims today (Summer exams will not be fitted around Ramadan, confirm boards) that this article, and similar ones in 'the Daily Mail, Sun and Daily Telegraph', are misleading, stating that no changes are going to be made to the timetables, and that it had been drafted over a year ago. Actually, this is misleading too, because the Guardian article linked to (and the Grauniad also published the original story, not just the rightwing press) also states that alterations were made for Ramadan, although bizarrely, some exams were moved into that period. Therefore the articles are only inaccurate if they suggest future changes, and the Citizen only does that by using language which suggests the changes are not a done deal ('Students in Gloucester may be sitting key exams earlier this year', and the like).
Actually, all these articles seem to miss a pretty important point, which is that whatever time around Ramadan exams take place, there should be no obligation for pupils to fast anyway. Any assumptions to the contrary may lead to scenes like the one reported last summer, where a teacher refused to allow non-Muslim children to drink water during blistering weather because it would 'upset' others who were fasting. Let's be clear, that's abuse when a teacher does it to his/her charges, or when parents does it to their own kids, whatever their religion, and it shouldn't be excused in any way.
In any case, given complaints that bringing exams forward is unfair because pupils will have less time to revise, and that Ramadan keeps arriving earlier too, wouldn't it have made more sense to push the exams backward instead, and sort out the problem for the foreseeable future? The answer to that may be that it would push the exams into the summer holidays. That being so, the best answer is to stop manufacturing a problem, and for Muslim leaders to make it clear to schools that no child would be expected to fast at such an important time in their lives.