(Middle East Eye) The new interim chair of Ofsted, the UK’s school regulator, has previously criticised the official narrative around the Birmingham “Trojan Horse” affair, saying the episode left some Muslims worried that expressing their faith would bring about “establishment suspicion.”
The Trojan Horse affair is a now-debunked episode in which Muslim teachers and governors were accused of plotting to take over and Islamicise state schools in Birmingham in 2014.
Sir Hamid Patel, who has been a member of the Ofsted board since 2019, was earlier this week appointed interim chair after Dame Christine Ryan announced last November she would be stepping down.
Patel, who was knighted in 2021, is chief executive of Star Academies, a hugely successful multi-academy trust that runs 36 schools across the country, largely in deprived areas.
