FOR ALL OUR SAKES: GET RID OF “FAITH
SCHOOLS”, SAY TEACHING UNIONS by Terry Sanderson
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Britain’s biggest teaching union, The National Union of Teachers,
will call for the abolition of state-funded “faith schools” at its
annual conference next week. A similar call is being made at the
Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference on Tuesday.
The NUT warns that the growth in the number of religious schools is
leading to “segregated schooling” in many parts of the country.
Delegates will be told that this is fostering religious divisions and
creating a fertile ground for ethnic conflict and even terrorism.
Steve Sinnott, the union’s General Secretary, said there was
“enormous concern around the country” over the growth of faith
schools. The debate was prompted by concerns over Tony Blair’s
appeal to faith groups to sponsor his inner-city academies and support
the new breed of independently-run “trust” schools he wants to
establish.
The NUT is expressing a widely-shared concern that extreme religious
groups and fundamentalist sects are waiting in the wings for their
opportunity to take control of schools. They cite the example of the
Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead sponsored by Sir Peter
Vardy, where creationism is taught in science lessons. They are also
worried that the stringent admissions policies of some faith schools
create class divisions and give unfair advantage to the children of
parents who are religious, or claim to be religious.
The debate will take place on Sunday 16 April, and will be the first
attempt by the union to dismantle the compromise reached in 1944, when
universal state education was established, which allows religious
schools to run side-by-side with state community schools. There are
around 7,000 state-funded schools operated by religious groups in
England and Wales 6,400 primary and 600 secondary. Of these, 6,955 are
Church of England, Roman Catholic or Methodist. The rest consist of 36
Jewish schools, six Muslim, two Sikh, one Greek Orthodox and one
Seventh Day Adventist.
The Association of Teachers’ and Lecturers conference, being held in
Gateshead next week, will vote on a proposal to ban the teaching of
creationism in state schools and to stop public funding of religious
schools by 2020. Yet the Government’s new White Paper proposed to
make it easier for religious organisations to take over even more
schools. It is thought up to 60 private Islamic schools will enter the
state sector over the next decade, starting in September next year.
The motion warns: “The Government’s policy of increasing numbers
of faith schools will hinder integration, foster religious divisions
and provide fertile ground for religious and ethnic conflicts.”
According to a report in the Times Educational Supplement today, the
Reverend Chris Wilson, the Association’s honorary secretary, backs
the motion. The Unitarian minister is quoted as saying: “I believe a
lot of the people driving the faith schools debate want support for
these schools to be seen as the settled position of those with faith.
But that is a misrepresentation of the views of many of us who are
religious.”
Keith Porteous Wood, the Executive Director of the National Secular
Society, said: “At last we are seeing a resistance to this religious
madness in our schools. The NSS has been saying for years that
separating children on the grounds of religion is a recipe for social
disaster. How can the churches and the Government continue to claim
that educational apartheid is good for social cohesion? It
self-evidently isn’t. How can communities unite when different
elements of them never meet?”
The Government, however, insists that it will push on with its policy.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: “We
have a long tradition of faith schools in this country. They are
popular with parents and make an important contribution to community
cohesion. Leaders from the Church of England, Hindu, Sikh, Catholic,
Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist faiths only recently underlined their
commitment to ensure that faith schools teach pupils about other
religions as well as their own.”
Keith Porteous Wood said: “These schools may be popular with parents
seeking a quasi public school on the rates but they are overwhelmingly
unpopular with the population as a whole who see the dangers of
segregating children by religion. It is madness to open up new schools
when the number of teenagers is set to drop by half a million in the
next decade. As so many of these schools will be religious, and other
community schools are likely to close, the proportion of religious
schools is set to rise alarmingly.”
See also: Parents fight over religion in Scottish school http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/59689.html
Please no more religious schools in Scotland, begs priest http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=532642006