OSLO, Norway: Oslo’s schools have decided to ban Muslim girls from covering their faces, adding to the list of European cities and states that have banned the garment.

According to Toerger Odegaard, the head of the city's education department, Oslo's city council wants to ban the garments which cover the face.

He said teachers could not do their job properly without seeing their students' faces.

Speaking to Reuters, he said: “We will introduce a ban after the summer holidays at the end of August."

Lawyers at the education ministry had just told the council it would not be illegal under Norwegian law to ban the headdress.

Muslims in Norway - which has large Pakistani and Somali minorities concentrated mainly in Oslo - said the move was an encroachment on personal freedom.