THE head of a Blackburn Islamic school today hit back at claims by the head of school watchdog OFSTED that Muslim faith schools do not prepare children for life in modern Britain.

And the chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques also defended Muslim schools following the controversial comments.

Chief inspector of schools David Bell yesterday told members of the Hansard Society that a traditional Islamic education "does not entirely fit" Muslim children for life in modern Britain.

Mr Bell was calling for more to be done to improve the quality of citizenship teaching in schools and aid pupils' understanding of what it is to be British.

He said: "I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation for their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society."

He said in his next report he will urge Muslim schools to reform their lessons to give children "a broad and general knowledge of public institutions and services in England".

He added: "Britain's diversity has the potential to be one of its greatest strengths but divers does not mean completely different and it certainly must not mean segregated or separate."

But head at Tauheedul Islam Girls High School in Blackburn, Iqbal Patel, said: "I think it is very important to have our citizenship lessons and my pupils also learn other religions in RE with at least one of each per week.

"They are taught about how to fit in in a British culture, with families, employment and tolerance and it works very well."

The school in Bicknell Street performed well in last week's GCSE performance tables - coming first in East Lancashire for "value added measures" which the head said "speaks for itself".

Mr Patel added: "These statements are just not true. Our pupils and any others who meet the requirements of the national curriculum are taught and shown the same of living in British society."

And Ibrahim Master, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: "This should be addressed across the national curriculum at all schools as many are failing to give a good moral grounding.

"But what it is not is a problem for only Muslim schools, because if any schools are passing inspections then that means they are in line with the national curriculum."