Following Sir Hamid Patel being appointed the interim chair of Ofsted’s board, the curriculum in schools will be changed, and everything children learn at school must pass through him.
This is incorrect. Neither the chair of the Ofsted board, nor Ofsted as a whole, has the power to change the national curriculum taught in schools, which in England is set by the Department for Education.
Sir Hamid Patel has already said children must learn the Quran.
It’s true that guidance was issued when he was headteacher of Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School in Blackburn, in 2013, saying that pupils were expected to recite the Quran at least once a week outside of school.
The chair of the board of Ofsted does not have the power to change the national curriculum being taught in schools, as has been claimed online.
Sir Hamid Patel, chief executive of Star Academies, was appointed interim Chair of the Ofsted Board on 11 March.
Sir Hamid is also a mufti, a Muslim legal expert who makes decisions based on religious laws.
Several social media posts claim that following Sir Hamid’s appointment, the curriculum in schools will “soon be changed”.
One post on Facebook also claims that: “Everything British children learn at school must pass him.”
However, these posts are misleading. The chair of the board of Ofsted does not set or change the school curriculum.
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The national curriculum in England is set by the Department for Education which, by law, must be taught in all local authority maintained schools. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own school curriculums set by their devolved governments.
Ofsted, which stands for the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, is a non-ministerial department which has the duty of inspecting services providing education and skills, and services that care for children and young people in England.
An Ofsted spokesperson told us: “We inspect the quality of a school’s curriculum, but we do not set it nor can we change it. The national curriculum is set by the Department for Education, who are also the schools regulator.”
The leadership and management of Ofsted is the responsibility of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, a role which is currently held by Sir Martyn Oliver.
The chair and non-executive board members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Education, and the board’s responsibility is to determine strategic priorities and monitor Ofsted’s performance, as well as providing governance and scrutiny of its functions.
Sir Hamid, who has reportedly been on the Ofsted board since 2019, is due to hold the role of interim chair for up to five months, until “a new substantive chair” is found to replace Dame Christine Ryan, who announced she would be stepping down in November.
Some of the posts also claim that Sir Hamid has said that children “must learn the Koran”. Sir Hamid was formerly the headteacher of Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School in Blackburn, which was the subject of media reports in 2013 after it issued guidance on spiritual conduct outside of school, saying pupils were expected to recite the Quran “at least once a week”.
He is now chair of the governing body at the academy, not its headteacher, as well as being the chief executive of Star Academies, of which that school is part. And as we explained above, Mr Hamid does not have the power to set or change the national curriculum in his new role as chair of Ofsted’s board.
Academies and private schools do not have to follow the national curriculum as set by the government. However, the Department for Education says that academies “must teach a broad and balanced curriculum” which includes English, maths and science, and they must also teach relationships and sex education, and religious education.
Before sharing information that you see on social media, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. We have previously fact checked other claims about education, including on student loan repayments, the number of good or outstanding schools, and pupil absence data.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because the chair of Ofsted’s board does not have the power to change or set the national curriculum.
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