The government today gave school headteachers the right to ban the veil or other religious clothing from classrooms in a move branded “shocking” by a senior Muslim leader.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said: “Schools should consult parents and the wider community when setting uniform policy.

“And while they should make every effort to accommodate social, religious or medical requirements of individual pupils, the needs of safety, security and effective learning in the school must always take precedence.”

The new government guidelines say that the freedom of individuals “to manifest a religion” does not give them the right to do so “at any time, in any place, or in any particular manner”.

They state that schools could decide that pupils should not cover their faces because “the teacher may not be able to judge their engagement” in class.

Headteachers could also ban veils because “schools need to be able to identify individual pupils in order to maintain good order and identify intruders easily."

Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, condemned the guidelines.

He said: “Successive ministers dealing with education issues have failed to give proper guidance when requested by human rights campaigners about schools’ obligations regarding religious dress, including the head scarf, and other service delivery under human rights laws and norms.

“To now proceed to issue guidance against Muslim communities is simply shocking.”

But the Muslim Council of Britain, played down the significance of the move. Tahir Alam, the council’s education spokesman, said: “The vast majority of schools are able to solve these issues locally, and that should continue to be the case. We have to be sensible in the way we address these issues.”

Last month, the council accused state schools of failing to respect the wishes of Muslim children when organising sex education, changing rooms and religious assemblies.

It issued its own guidance, which said headteachers should build prayer rooms and individual changing cubicles and to allow girls to wear a head scarf and full-length loose skirt if they wish.

John Dunford, general secretary of ASCL, the headteachers' union, said schools had been looking for reassurance that they could set their own uniform policy.

He said: “After recent court cases, schools will look to this guidance to provide clarity on the wearing of veils and other religious dress.

“They want reassurance that future court judgments will defend schools and communities that have agreed a uniform policy that accommodates the interests of all and promotes a sense of unity.”

Today's news comes after a 12-year-old Muslim girl lost a legal battle for the right to wear a full-faced veil, or niqab, at her Buckinghamshire school last month. The judge accepted the school’s argument that the veil was unacceptable for security reasons. Last year, 15-year-old Shabina Begum lost her fight to wear the full-length jilbab to school.

In October, the Prime Minister sparked fierce debate when he called the Muslim veil a "mark of separation" that made some "outside the community feel uncomfortable".

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