Suleyman Folami and Muanet Daniah have been banned from teaching for at least the next two years by a Teaching Regulation Agency misconduct panel after they were convicted of running an illegal school
A couple who ran an illegal school in London have been banned from teaching.
Suleyman Folami and Muanet Daniah were given suspended jail sentences when they were convicted of running the illegal school after a trial at Westminster magistrates court in 2020. At the time they were each handed a four week suspended jail term before a judge rejected an appeal saying they had tried to ‘bend the rules’. Now the pair have been banned from teaching for at least the next two years by a Teaching Regulation Agency misconduct panel.
Ofsted officials had inspected the Advance Education Centre in Brent three times in 2018 and 2019 and found the ground floor of the building was used for a legal primary school – but the floor above was an unregistered school for secondary pupils. The unregistered school had as many as 66 pupils and set homework, issued detentions and operated full time. According to UK law, when five or more children attend a place for education, it must be registered with the Department for Education.
Ofsted inspectors identified several safeguarding risks, including inadequate supervision of children and unidentified adults walking unchallenged through the premises. When they visited the school in 2019 during a ‘pre-registration inspection’, they found a number of issues.
“The curriculum policy is very brief and refers mainly to children in the early years, which is irrelevant to the age range of pupils for which the proprietor is applying to register the school,” a report written at the time read. It concluded that “the school is unlikely to meet all the independent school standards when it opens”. Ofsted said the school was ‘chaotic’ and the adults in charge had problems managing the behaviour of pupils.
Daniah, who is still an employee of Advance Education Charity, has been banned for the next five years from teaching. The panel said ‘by her actions she sought to to exploit her position of trust in the community in which she professes to serve’. However, a former employer said Folami was an excellent teacher with ’empathy, rapport and professionalism’ towards pupils who would also ‘role model and mentor newly qualified staff’. The ex boss said he has given ‘so much to the most vulnerable and complex pupils’.
The panel said a ban would not be proportionate but decision maker Marc Cavey disagreed, saying it was a serious misconduct which led to a suspended jail sentence and created safeguarding risks. He banned him for two years.
