A college which tried to ban pupils wearing the full facial veil for security reasons has abandoned the rule after a public outcry.
All students, staff and visitors to Birmingham Metropolitan College were told they must have their faces visible at all times so they are ‘easily identifiable’.
But the move was heavily criticised by some students, one describing the policy as disgusting. Nick Clegg said he was 'uneasy' about the idea.
More than 800 people claimed they planned to attend a protest against the policy today to stand up to what they said was an ‘Islamophobic’ decision.
David Cameron’s spokesman said the Prime Minister defended the right of educational institutions to be able to ‘set and enforce their own school uniform policies’.
Downing Street said the PM would support the a ban on Muslim veils at his children’s schools.
His spokesman said today: 'We support schools in setting their own uniform guidelines. These are decisions that are around uniform are rightly for schools' to take.'
But Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg yesterday said he felt ‘uneasy’ about a veil ban in a schools, although he could understand why it was needed to identify people at airport checkouts.
The college which has 44,000 students and is the third largest in the UK, said headwear poses a security risk and their policy ‘includes the removal of hoodies, hats, caps and veils so that faces are visible’.
This would stop female Muslim pupils from wearing the niqab, the full facial veil where only the woman’s eyes are visible, or the burqa where the eye area is covered in mesh.
But the college has now issued a statement saying it has decided to modify its stance to allow individuals to wear 'specific items of personal clothing to reflect their cultural values'.
More than 9,000 people signed an online petition set up by NUS Black Students' Campaign calling on the college's principal Dr Christine Braddock to remove the ban.
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