Religious freedom must be considered in the light of children's well-being
Will this year’s GCSE and A-Level examinations be rescheduled to accommodate fasting Muslim students during Ramadan?
As the Islamic calendar is a lunar one, Ramadan shifts slightly each year, meaning Muslims will be fasting from June to July this year. Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will sit GCSEs and A-levels between May 16 and June 29 this year.
The Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents exam boards, said it had held discussions with Muslim leaders about the timetabling of exams this summer, but a report in the Guardian late on Thursday suggested that there had been some misunderstandings.
The council said the timing of Ramadan had been considered in the same way as other events – such as the Queen’s diamond jubilee in June 2012 – and that the timetable was not open to change. I expect more details will emerge in due course.
What has interested me, however, is the response of some people who believe this is a good way of accommodating fasting students.
The potential rescheduling of exams is not as important to me as the fact that we are not talking about mature adults who can make an informed choice, but children upon whom there is no obligation to fast, as well as encouraging them at a very young age to fast as soon as possible.
That these are young children depriving themselves of food and water seems to go largely unsaid. If non-Muslim children were to deprive themselves of food and drink for nearly 20 hours each day for a month, I suspect the response would be different.
Last year, there was uproar when a headteacher of the Lion Academy Trust – which runs four schools in London – advised parents to tell their children not to fast as it could be harmful. Instead of support, the decision was criticised by certain Muslim groups, saying it was not the school’s place to interfere.
Brushing aside the ironic fact that some of these groups try to interfere in the lives of Muslims, when did it come to this? Instead of praising children and parents for showing so much devotion to their religion, better time and energy would be spent on schools and these ‘faith leaders’ – assuming they influence the people they claim to represent – on telling parents and the wider communities to encourage their children not to fast.
If headteachers are truly concerned over the ‘negative effects’ that a clash between Ramadan and exams could have, then they should follow the example of the aforementioned headteacher.
Coming from a Muslim background, I appreciate that sense of unity one feels during Ramadan, knowing your fellow Muslims are all fasting and feeling hungry and tired, and perhaps you will all share a meal together at sunset.
But this should not come at the expense of a child’s health and well-being. If they really wish to fast then they should make up for it when they do not have exams or when they are off school.
Schools should not be making too many concessions in the name of religion – who knows where this will lead to and what the next issue will be.
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47 Responses to “Should exams be rescheduled so Muslims can fast for Ramadan?”
jj
Problem is when you start defending the indefensible.
I have seen this in the extreme with reference to the Cologne attacks.
People are actually defending the attackers, merely BECAUSE they are foreign, non white, Arabic, mainly if not all Muslim, this is just plain wrong.
Why defend a single bloc of people regardless of the actions you see some, not all of course, but some do.
We need to criticise such things, not doing so is a disservice to the victims.
With regards to Ramadan, many parents will force children to fast, there seems to be no law in place stopping this, why Jewish people have anything to do with this, I will not know? Why mention Jewish people?
Children don’t always show signs of abuse, you will not always know they are suffering from it. Fasting for a child, any child is simply ridiculous and unhealthy.
jj
Kids shouldn’t fast… period, it shouldn’t be the ill informed decision of a parent that results in a child going hungry and a little senile too (lack of food does that to people).
Comrade Darling
A group of people have to be defended from an attack aimed at the group when only a faction of the group are responsible for a crime or moral wrong. To blame an entire group for the actions of a minority is bigotry.
The left have always been forced to defend groups to block the creation of scapegoats by the right, as I said, with Jews who have traditions such as circumcision that I disagree with the left still defended and continue to defend the group. This is politics and in a world of rising hate against Muslims which the right wing extremists are trying to exploit this is essential.
What is more, there is no contradiction in defending a group and at the same time being critical of traditions of the group. To be concrete, I am against all religion for the way that the ills of society that are human made can be excused by the idea that it is gods will but that I also know that in politics the imperative is that Jews and Muslims are not made scapegoats for the ills of society, or for that matter Christians as they are in other societies.
jj
Its interesting though that it is in fact Christians who are the most persecuted faith group on earth, according to Pew Research.
Too often the bigotry of the Muslim community is swept under the carpet and ignored, because its perceived as ‘bigotry’, and that fails victims.
JAMES MCGIBBON
Seems children have no choice. Adults just cloning them in their own image. My three grown up children did not need religion to teach them right or wrong.