The main issue affecting UK mosdos is the insistence of Ofsted, the body charged with inspecting and evaluating educational establishments, on promoting ‘British values’, which particular emphasis on issues such as toeivah and modesty. This was sparked by a case in Birmingham, known as the Trojan Horse plot, where Muslim organisations attempted, and managed, to ‘Islamify’ certain state schools. They used the schools, which were publicly run but had many Muslim students, to promote fundamentalist and Salafist values. Some of the incidents that were reported were truly shocking, although they are too numerous to go through here. The result of this was a moral panic, and heavy scrutiny on faith schools. Ofsted announced new procedures, such as unannounced surprise inspections, and a focus on ‘values’ and ‘rights’.
Unsurprisingly, the frum schools were caught in the crossfire. The majority of the fresh surprise inspections were targeted at religious Jewish schools, despite there only being about two dozen frum schools in the entire country. Whilst these schools often receive public funding, they were not actual state schools, like those affected by the Trojan Horse plot, and are technically private schools. And these schools had mostly received excellent results previous to this, with almost all rated ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’. These were schools that generally provided an exemplary secular education, attaining very good, sometimes country-best, exam results, and also taught as part of the curriculum ‘British values’ such as civic responsibility, democracy and tolerance. But this was not considered, and the inspectors focused very heavily on specific issues such as ‘equality’ and toeivah. As a result, previously highly rated schools were downgraded to ‘Poor’ or ‘Special Measures’, which can lead to forced closure. For example, Vizhnitz Girls School failed three consecutive inspections for failing to teach their students about toeivah, this being the only stated reason for the poor rating. There were instances of inspectors far overstepping their bounds by directly telling very young children about certain issues related to ‘equality’. In fact, the reports from Ofsted failing these schools bring the ‘Equalities Act of 2010’ as the primary reason. This story is ongoing, and leaves frum schools in a very difficult position. There has been a backlash, as Ofsted is supposed to be an apolitical organisation, but it seems determined to enforce its liberal values on the frum education sector.
What other posters have mentioned is a separate, although tangentially connected, issue regarding unregistered yeshvos, generally chassidishe chedarim, and their status. This has been fueled in particular by some who have left the kehilla going to the media. This is far less widespread then the above issue regarding ‘values’, and is notable mainly for the headlines it has generated. Some of them have reregistered as ‘sunday schools’, and Yeshiva Tiferes Yaakov in Gateshead, amongst others, had to register its lower shiurim as a ‘school’ to avoid censure. But the two are not the same story, and should not be confused with each other.