TEACHERS starting their long summer break might be forgiven for feeling elated now that Michael Gove has gone. But his poisonous legacy remains. 

Given the political fiasco unleashed in May when Ofsted published a politically inspired report into a small minority of Birmingham schools wrongly accused in the right-wing media of Islamic indoctrination, the latest report is a pale version of the previous hysterical narrative of Islamophobic remarks and false accusations. 

David Cameron’s hasty reaction and much-derided championing of “British values” has been perceived as a meaningless concept to translate into classroom learning. 

But it served its purpose in forming part of the political narrative of scapegoating a minority community and stereotyping a rich, complex, cultural and religious Muslim heritage. Racists and xenophobes were heartened by Cameron’s words. 

Anti-racists have a big challenge in confronting prejudice, discrimination and the hate crime that has resulted. 

Cameron’s risible remarks echo similar contrived speeches trotted out periodically in pre-election periods, when the main political parties try to garner votes by playing the race card. 

Only this time he is desperate due to the threat Ukip poses in marginal Tory seats. He is resorting to inflammatory words about immigration and terrorism, knowing the public are sensitised to the global backdrop of jihadist extremist actions. 

The real problem, however, is not the distraction and democratic charade of the next general election, but the licence it will give to racists within all the mainstream parties to increase their attacks on ethnic minorities. 

This underlying hatred has been magnified by the hysteria in the aftermath of the Ofsted report. 

What is troubling is that ethnic minority schoolchildren are being victimised on a regular basis, yet this receives scant attention. 

The children’s charity ChildLine recently reported that 1,400 children had contacted its helpline over racist bullying. It cited a 69 per cent jump from the previous year.

The Communities Empowerment Network (CEN) discovered in 2010 that there had been 8,000 permanent exclusions a year in England and 380,000 fixed-term exclusions. 

And there is a cultural dimension. White, working-class pupils have serious problems in terms of underachievement, but black pupils remain three times more likely to be excluded than white — and face stiffer sanctions. 

These cases represent 90 per cent of the CEN workload — 60 referrals a month, often the result of racist bullying.

According to a BBC investigation nearly 88,000 racist incidents were recorded in Britain’s schools between 2007 and 2011. 

Data from 90 areas showed 87,915 cases of racist bullying, including name-calling, cyber-bullying and physical abuse. 

Given the recent focus on Birmingham schools it is a stark fact that Birmingham recorded the highest number of racist incidents in school at 5,752, followed by Leeds with 4,690. 

The wave of Islamophobia stirred up by the government and some craven Labour Party politicians translates directly into overt and covert racist bullying of young children and their families. 

This in turn harms their self-esteem, social confidence and ability to concentrate and learn in school. 

Inevitably this mirrors a decline in exam performance and triggers yet more Ofsted inspections — denting teacher confidence and unsettling school governors and leadership.

One of the aspects seized upon in the Ofsted aftermath was the notion of segregation in Muslim schools between boys and girls. 

This was used as evidence of religious fanaticism and gender discrimination. 

Yet gender segregation has been happening in non-Muslim schools for decades — and not just the posh independent schools. 

Orthodox Jewish schools have done this for ages while newly created academies under the control of evangelical Christians practice sex segregation. For example, Moulsham High school in Essex has practised single-sex teaching since it opened more than 40 years ago, and most year 7, 8 and 9 classes are taught in separate boys’ and girls’ classes, while in years 10 and 11 option subjects and some maths, English and science lessons are mixed. 

Meanwhile, at Wren Academy in north London, core subjects are taught in single-sex classes. 

Recently single-sex groups started in maths at the Haywood Academy near Stoke-on-Trent. 

David Young Community Academy in Leeds introduced single-sex teaching four years ago. 

English, maths and science are taught in all-girls’ or all-boys’ classes in years 7, 8 and 9. 

Achievement overall has been given a fillip. After a dramatic increase in its first few years — the academy opened its doors in 2006 — GCSE results had plateaued at around 50 per cent five A* to Cs including English and maths. 

This year the school is expecting that figure to go above 60 per cent.

New Hall, a former all-girls independent school in Essex, introduced single-sex classes in 2005 for 11 to 16-years-olds. 

Teachers based this decision on clear research evidence from the University of Essex that showed girls perform better academically in girls-only schools or in separate teaching groups, while boys appear to benefit more from co-education. 

The government needs to get off the backs of teachers, stop inciting racism and allow schools to meet the needs of their diverse, multicultural communities while tackling discrimination against both boys and girls so each sex has equality of opportunity.