If I was one of her pupils I would have kicked of a fuss

Another point, as is often the case with these type of 'political correctness' type of debates, how many children/teachers/parents had problems understanding her but didn't say anything because they were worried about being called racist etc because of it. I raised an issue at college with a maths teacher we had who was foreign (can't remember the nationality) and the majority, if not all the class struggled to understand her explanations, I was told by my tutor not to take it further as I was risking being disciplined under college regualtions for racist comments and they eventually swapped my classes for me. Chances are there are many similar cases where people havn't spoken out or have but been shut up allowing situations to continue which aren't right just for the sake of trying to avoid upsetting people.

i was watching the woman today on the news, i was at work but the TV was still at an adequate level. I had problems understanding her with the viel over her face, her accent was not overly strong but still.......

The thing is the viel is a choice not mandatory (unlike for instance sikhs whose turban as far as i know is) as part of her religion. I think she should comprimise and remove it whilst in schools,

Why do some British people think that others can't speak English properly?

I was not saying that others can't speak english properly, I know there are some people who live in Britain but aren't from here originally who speak english very well, and there are people who are english who are rubbish at speaking their own language, it works both ways. What I was doing was trying to make a point about people worrying about being being classed as being racist if they criticise someone about something, such as their dress or accent (on good grounds to do so though.)

I definitely don't think she should be able to wear a veil in the classroom. As it has probably been said before, this would pose serious problems for kids hard of hearing (I have a friend who is partially deaf and relies on lip reading in class a lot).

your example is ridiculous though. most people accept the veil as a relgious choice whereas a balaclava is just stupid. you CAN take that off if you wish. therefore your argument doesnt hold. why should we make people conform to 'our' standards and vice versa?

Voice changes, pitch and tone.

But the fact that many muslim women don't wear veils shows that it isn't purely a religious thing, and that there is a clear aspect of choice in the matter of whether to wear it or not. Or are you saying that only the women who wear veils are 'good' muslims? I'm sure the non-veil wearing women would disagree with you!

Some women would argue that it is mandatory.

but its not mandatory to thier religion hence why they dont all wear them

I think the fact she is a teaching assistant in a Primary School has a lot to do with it aswell, I think it'd be a be a bit different in a Secondary School because of maturer students, but if she were teaching me when I was about 5 years old I would have been scared. Very scared.