Faith schools undermine equality, choice and social cohesion.
Let's build an inclusive education system today, to ensure an inclusive society tomorrow.
Our education system should be open and welcoming to all. That's why we want publicly funded faith schools phased out and an end to religiously selective school admissions.
Around a third of publicly funded schools in England and Wales are faith schools – schools with a religious character. Scottish and Northern Irish schools are still divided along sectarian lines.
Separating children according to religion is divisive and leads to religious, ethnic and socio-economic segregation.
To make matters worse, many faith schools can discriminate against pupils and teachers who do not share the religion of the school.
Parents are entitled to raise their children within a faith tradition, but they are not entitled to enlist the help of the state to do so. The state should not allow the schools it funds to inculcate children into a particular religion.
Faith schools seriously limit choice for parents who do not want a religious education for their children, or do not share the faith of the local school. Our research has found that 18,000 families were assigned faith schools against their wishes in England in 2017 alone.
Despite a consistent and dramatic decline in church attendance, and a growing majority of non-religious citizens, successive governments have paved the way for ever greater religious involvement in education, often to the detriment of inclusive community schools.
A secular approach to education would ensure publicly funded schools are equally welcoming to all children, regardless of their backgrounds.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Please call on your MP to support a secular, inclusive education system for all.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Extremists exploit lax home schooling laws, police study finds
Posted: Sun, 4 Mar 2018 09:04
Half of 70 known extremists in London removed their children from state schools to educate them at home, according to a Metropolitan Police study.
Details of the study emerged following Friday's conviction of an unqualified teacher, Umar Haque, for plotting up to 30 terrorist attacks in London, the Sunday Times has reported.
As the National Secular Society has previously reported, Umar Haque brainwashed young boys attending the Ripple Road mosque in Barking and made them carry out role-playing sessions where some took the part of police officers and others were jihadists. In one exercise they used imaginary knives to sever a head. Haque also taught at a private Islamic school in Leyton called Lantern of Knowledge.
The Met Police study appears to back up a previous warning from Neil Basu, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, that "segregated, isolated communities, unregulated education and home schooling are a breeding ground for future terrorists".
Pressure is growing on the government to tighten lax home education laws. Campaigners, including the NSS, have warned that they are being exploited by religious communities to educate their children in unregistered schools. Illegal schools have been found in Birmingham, Luton and a number of London boroughs. Some have links to extremist organisations, and many have almost no secular or English education. There is also evidence of children being exposed to hate-filled homophobic and misogynistic teaching material in them.
The NSS is supporting a new private member's bill to safeguard children's rights by better regulating home schooling. The Home Education (Duty of Local Authorities) Bill, moved by NSS honorary associate Lord Soley, would institute a duty for local authorities to monitor the educational, physical and emotional development of children receiving home education in England and Wales. It would also require parents to register home-educated children with the local authority. It is due to be debated next month.
The NSS is also calling on the government to better regulate out of school educational settings, such as madrassas and yeshivas, that provide "intensive tuition, instruction or training" where children attend over six hours per week.
A government proposal for a system of registration and inspection of supplementary schools was recently shelved following opposition from the Church of England, which feared the registration of its Sunday schools, despite the fact they would be largely unaffected by the proposals.
At least 350 unregistered schools have been set up across Britain, according to Ofsted, which is calling for strengthened powers to tackle them. Warning notices have been issued to 50 suspected unregistered schools, 38 have closed or ceased to operate illegally and 12 are under criminal investigation. So far no proprietors of illegal schools have been prosecuted.
Robert Halfon MP, chair of the Commons education committee, has said there should be no "grey areas" and is worried about the lack of regulation concerning unregistered schools.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society chief executive, said: "After years of campaigning, we are finally seeing wide recognition that it is completely unacceptable for British children to be left to languish in unregistered settings where they are indoctrinated by fundamentalists and left exposed to harm.
"There is a balance to be struck between the rights of parents to home educate and the rights of the child to a proper education. But that balance must be struck in order to protect child rights.
"The denial of secular education and the teaching of intolerance and violence in unregistered schools has the clear potential to damage to the minds of young people and cause harm to wider society. The government can no longer look the other way."
NSS leads protest against plans to lift faith-based admissions cap
Posted: Wed, 21 Feb 2018 18:01
The National Secular Society has led a protest outside Parliament against plans to extend religious discrimination in school admissions – as a select committee considers an inquiry into the policy.
NSS supporters declared their opposition to Government proposals to lift the faith-based admissions cap on schools and open a wave of new faith schools in England.
Supporters chanted "educate, don't segregate", "don't scrap the cap" and "no more faith schools".
Under current rules no more than 50% of a faith school's intake can be chosen according to parents' religious affiliation. But in 2016 the Government, under pressure from the Catholic Church, said it would lift the cap in the position paper 'Schools that work for everyone'.
This week the education secretary, Damian Hinds, said he planned to press ahead with plans to abolish the cap.
Meanwhile the education select committee has told the NSS it is considering an inquiry into the policy. The committee's chair, Robert Halfon, told NSS chief executive Stephen Evans it would discuss its upcoming programme "shortly" and it "may include the 50% cap".
The NSS has twice called on the committee to hold an inquiry. In a letter to Mr Halfon last month Mr Evans expressed the Society's concern that the Government would "give effect to this significant policy shift without reference to Parliament". He wrote that an inquiry would be "essential to provide any degree of parliamentary scrutiny to this divisive policy shift". The education secretary has the power to scrap the cap without passing legislation.
Mr Evans added that "the proposal has the potential to significantly increase religious discrimination and social and ethnic segregation within our publicly funded schools".
"There is a significant and growing weight of academic and expert opinion to support the contention that religiously based admissions criteria produce more religiously, ethnically and socially segregated schools. We believe that an inquiry by your committee is essential to provide a forum for such evidence to influence the policy making process."
After today's protest Mr Evans said: "The Government should think very carefully about making faith schools even more discriminatory at the behest of bishops. If we want a cohesive society tomorrow, we need a secular and inclusive education system today.Policies that promote segregation and discrimination should make way for policies that promote integration and cohesion."
The Government's plans appeared to have stalled when Justine Greening was education secretary. But last month Mr Hinds, who had spoken out in favour of lifting the cap as a backbencher, replaced her. His appointment was widely viewed as a sign of the Government's intent to press ahead.
The NSS wrote to Mr Hinds when he was appointed and urged him to "strike a blow for cohesion, equality and fairness" by abandoning the plans.
More information
Protect relationships and sex education
Age-appropriate relationships and sex education should be every child’s right.
Remove religious appointees from Scottish councils
Religion shouldn’t grant people privileged places in local democracy.
Research and reports
The faith schools research bank
The choice delusion: how faith schools restrict school choice
Three in ten families across England live in areas where most or all of the closest primary schools are faith schools and thousands are being assigned faith schools against their wishes.
Power grab: Academisation and the threat to secular education
Academisation has enabled faith groups to increase their influence over all schools, including those with no religious character. With little public debate, religious governance has increased, while secular oversight has diminished.
Religiosity inspections: the case against faith-based reviews of state schools
Faith based inspections of state schools are an unnecessary drain on public finds, frame widely held values as exclusive, and promote biased religious education.
Faith-shaped holes: How religious privilege is undermining equality law (PDF, 1.3 Mb)
