UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
Chris Cook
Policy editor, Newsnight
As many as 1,000 boys from strictly Orthodox Jewish families may be pupils at a network of between 12 and 20 illegal private schools in east London.
These schools are not registered with the authorities, which makes them illegal, and they offer a narrow, religious syllabus.
The Department for Education is working with Ofsted to find and shut them.
Some of the illegal schools, however, are registered as charities, gaining them an advantaged tax status.
These private schools serve the small so-called Charedi community – a grouping that contains within it a wide variety of strictly Orthodox Jewish traditions. Hackney council estimates there are around 30,000 Charedi Jews in the borough.
Charedi parents are more likely to want a relatively mainstream education for their girls. There is demand, however, from parts of the community for a narrow education for boys, one that is largely focused on religious education and delivered in the Yiddish language.
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