UK to set school exams around Ramadan

[Fidel_Castronaut]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...count.html

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I don't think I've heard enough yet to fully form an opinion. It sounds like a lot of exams are simply being moved to the morning of the day they'd be on anyway. If we're talking about moving exams earlier by weeks though, doesn't that negatively affect everyone? It gives you less time to learn the curriculum and prepare.

I just think it's stupid. No discussion about the asinine practices that are the real cause of these kids' suffering education, no, everyone else has to move to accommodate it.

And side-note as well, I'm getting sick of hearing this selective "Britain is a Christian country" argument, that people who never go to church bring out when Islam hits the news. We're a country which has historically had a Christian majority, we are not a Christian country anymore in the 21st Century. Stop that.

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To me, this reads like an educational institution trying to do what's best for the students rather than an 'imposition' on exam schedules by muslims; religion is just an angle that Teh Fail is exploiting for headlines. The simple fact is that some students are muslim and celebrate Ramadan. In a truly secular system (which our educational establishment tries to be, in spite of Call-Me-Dave's best efforts), those students should not be disadvantaged by that fact: the process should anticipate the situation and flex itself to accommodate the needs of its consumers. That's what we're seeing here, not some back-door islamisation, which is the angle Teh Fail's going for. This piece is transparent, divisive fear-mongering, typical of their current editorial trends.

Shame on some of you for falling for it  

But surely that's the wrong way around isn't it? Nobody is stopping them from taking the exam. They have the opportunity given to them to do so, is it not to their own disadvantage if they do not take it? The disadvantage is entirely self-imposed (or enforced, by parents).

I admit it's a relatively small concession, given the times involved, but it's just another concession on religious grounds given by the state to crazy cults and religions. Whether it be the exemption given to Sikhs allowing them to contravene health and safety laws by not wearing a hard hat on a building site, or one given to Jews and Muslims allowing them to break the law (Slaughter House Act) in their barbaric ritual killings of animals, it seems that this is demonstrably not secular.

I'm not about to side with the DM on this but one cannot ignore the religious angle of this. A truley secular system would give a firm date and say that's it. Whether you sit them or not is your choice, but it's on this date.

Then again, a truly secular system would remove state funded faith institutions, but here we are. A not so secular education system.