Their introduction was controversial, but the first Muslim state schools appear to be more than making the grade, writes David Marley (Times Educational Supplement, 19th December 2008)

"...Muslim state schools are among the most successful in the country in terms of both value-added scores and raw exam results, The TES can reveal.

Pupils make more progress at Muslim secondary schools than in any other type of school, including faith schools and non-religious comprehensives, figures from Whitehall show.

Islamic state schools come joint top in primary school English tests, with more than 90 per cent of pupils achieving the Government's target score in their key stage 2 exams. Only Jewish schools - long regarded as the most academically successful - can match the performance of Muslim schools on this measure.

The figures, based on 2007 results, reignite the debate on faith schools and the quality of education they provide in compared with non-religious community schools.

Muslim schools are new to the state sector and their number, with just 10 open, are a tiny fraction of the number run by the Church of England and the Catholic Church.

Just three Muslim primaries and three Muslim secondaries returned results in 2007. But more private Islamic schools are expected to join the state sector. Plans for new schools in London and Kirklees in West Yorkshire are being developed.

And, as revealed in The TES last week, the first bid from a Muslim charity to run a state school with places guaranteed for non-Muslim pupils is now being considered by the schools adjudicator.

The exam results, released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, show that the Muslim secondaries last year had an average contextual value-added (CVA) score - which factors in pupil background and prior attainment - far above all other schools.

In terms of raw exam results, 62.9 per cent of pupils achieved five A*-C grade GCSEs, including English and maths - more than double the Government's floor target of 30 per cent.

The average for all faith schools is 51.8 per cent, with non-religious schools, excluding selective grammars, averaging 43.3 per cent. Jewish schools achieve the best raw results, with 77 per cent of pupils in eight secondaries hitting the five GCSEs target.

Mohamed Mukadam, the chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, which represents almost 130 state and private Islamic schools, said much of the success in developing pupils could be attributed to strong community involvement."

'We are only a small number of schools, but the key thing is that we work with the parents and the community to drive up standards," said Dr Mukadam, who is also the head of Leicester's Madani High School, an Pounds 18 million state secondary opened last year.

'We make sure we go the extra mile with parents and send them lots of information,' he said. 'We also inculcate pupils with traditional values of discipline and hard work.'

The results for Muslim schools are also impressive considering that children from Pakistani and Muslim-Indian homes generally achieve lower exam results than national averages.

In primaries, the picture is more mixed. Muslim schools come joint top in key stage 2 English tests, with 93 per cent of pupils achieving at level 4.

Dr Mukadam said people should not be surprised. 'We are talking about third and fourth generation children...The vast majority will now speak English at home as their first language. We have moved on from the days when English was not spoken at home.'

But the contextual value-added score for Muslim primaries is the lowest of any type of school, suggesting that results with younger pupils should be better than they are...."

Source: Times Education Supplement