How to prevent schools from being hijacked by extremists

The coalition plan to let parents, teachers and voluntary groups set up schools and be paid by the state for every pupil they educate has the potential to transform education for the better in this country. But this policy also requires the government to prevent these freedoms from being abused by extremist groups who want to teach hate. The revelations on tomorrow night’s Panorama about weekend schools that use Saudi textbooks that ask pupils to list the “reprehensible”  qualities of Jews and teach the Protocols of Zion as fact are  a reminder of how serious this threat is.

A new report from Policy Exchange, a think tank that has done a huge amount of important work on how to combat extremism, sets out how to prevent such groups from taking control of faith schools.