By Jamie Waller, Local Democracy Reporter
A former Nottingham teacher who posted offensive online comments about Muslims has been barred from teaching again.
Amrik Nijran was a long-standing science teacher at Nottingham Academy.
A Teaching and Regulation Agency panel found he was prejudiced against Muslims and Pakistanis, and failed to display the tolerance required of teachers.
The material came to light in November 2020 when pupils showed one of his social media posts to another teacher at the school, who immediately reported it.
The academy says it launched an investigation as soon as it became aware of the posts, and referred Mr Nijran to watchdog the Teaching Regulation Authority.
The posts repeated several offensive stereotypes about Muslims, and also targeted Pakistan and China.
The profile wasn’t restricted, with all content available to the public.
Mr Nijran denied all the allegations, claiming his Twitter account had been hacked.
However, the Teacher Misconduct Panel found this unlikely given there were many other posts on his timeline which he admitted to making.
Mr Nijran didn’t appear before the panel, held on November 7, citing health reasons, and wasn’t represented.
The report published this week (November 29) found he was guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” and hadn’t displayed the “mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs” required of British teachers.
While re-tweeting doesn’t necessarily endorse a post’s views, the panel found there was a consistent anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistani prejudice.
There is no evidence that Mr Nijran ever discriminated or shared his views in the classroom, and was even regarded well by some of his Muslim pupils.
However, the panel believed that parents could fear their children were being treated unfairly.
According to the report, Mr Nijran had not shown remorse and did not recognise the risk that the extreme material could pose to pupils, meaning he could potentially repeat the behaviour.
A prohibition order was put in place for life, which Mr Nijran may appeal after two years.
A spokesperson for the Academy, said: “We are committed to upholding the highest standards of conduct, both for our pupils and staff and are dedicated to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all.
“We take any allegations very seriously and work hard to ensure our values are continually upheld across the Academy.
“When we became aware of the allegations, we immediately conducted a full investigation, which continued after the teacher’s resignation and upheld our robust procedures, which included making the appropriate referrals to the Teacher Regulation Agency and providing the necessary support to our school community.”
Mr Nijran could not be reached for comment.
