THE chief of school watchdog Ofsted will take personal charge of the investigation into claims that schools in Birmingham have been taken over by Muslim extremists.
Sir Michael Wilshaw who has carried out inspections in 18 schools in the city, is expected to go to Birmingham this week to finalise the reports from these inspections.
The watchdog alongside the Department for Education will publish their findings in May.
Education Secretary Michael Gove appointed Peter Clarke, who headed the police investigation into the July 7, 2005 London bombings, to conduct a probe into the allegations.
The former head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command will "analyse evidence of extremist infiltration" in Birmingham schools.
However, the appointment drew immediate criticism from the local police chief, who said people would inevitably draw "unwarranted conclusions".
Concerns about how some schools in Birmingham were being run first emerged last year in a leaked anonymous letter which outlined how to implement what it called Operation Trojan Horse – the takeover of schools by hardline Muslims.
Douglas Morgan, a teacher from Birmingham, warned during a National Union of Teachers debate conference that the investigation could "demonise the Muslim population of this country".
He called for the teachers' union conference "to send a message that we are against Islamophobia".