School leaders have responded with outrage to the suggestion that girls who are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) should be forced to undergo school-based medical checks on a regular basis.
The proposal is outlined in the Ukip manifesto, published today. The manifesto includes an “integration agenda”, which states the party’s intention to “implement school-based medical checks on girls from groups at high risk of suffering FGM. These should take place annually and whenever they return from trips overseas.”
‘Not sensible, not practical, not ethical’
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the proposal was: “Not sensible, not practical and not ethical. This is not an idea that we would want to support.”
He added that it could potentially cause additional problems for teachers. “There are certain limits to what we should ask teachers to be doing,” he said. “We want them to be spending their time teaching, not doing anything that would put them at risk of safeguarding accusations.”
‘Horrifying’
Education Twitter has also responded with outrage to the suggestion.
Most people tweeting about the Ukip manifesto agreed that the issue was an important one, but felt that there had to be a better way to tackle it:
Amendments to the Serious Crime Act, introduced in late 2015, require teachers to report known cases of FGM - either revealed by the girl herself or visually confirmed by the teacher - to the police. But a survey conducted by children’s charity Barnardo’s, shortly before this new duty came into force, found that one in five teachers had no understanding at all of it.
And 80 per cent thought that they were legally obliged to report to the police any girls whom they believed to be at risk of FGM. In fact, they are only required to report known cases of FGM.
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