No more faith schools

No more faith schools

Page 146 of 310: We need inclusive schools free from religious discrimination, privilege or control.

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.

  • 58% of Brits oppose faith schools and only 30% say they have "no objection" to faith schools being funded by the state.
  • 72% of voters, including 68% of Christians, oppose state funded schools being allowed to discriminate against prospective pupils on religious grounds in their admissions policy.

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.

  • Other representatives

    We also have template letters to write to your Members of the Scottish or Welsh Parliaments or Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly.

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

More religious schools undermining British values, warns Ofsted

Posted: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 06:11

Ofsted has warned that an increasing number of conservative religious schools are spreading beliefs that clash with British values and equalities law.

In its Annual Report, launched today, the schools regulator says the proportion of independent schools judged less than good increased this year from 31% to 40%. It said a number of these are "highly conservative" Christian, Jewish, or Muslim faith schools, and in some cases, the premises are unsafe or squalid.

The Report says inspectors have found "sexist and sectarian literature" in some schools and warns that the most basic checks are not always in place.

It says to function effectively, "British society depends on some fundamental shared values as well as a culture of mutual tolerance and respect. But we have found an increasing number of conservative religious schools that are spreading beliefs that clash with British values and equalities law."

The report also calls for additional powers to tackle the growing menace of unregistered and illegal schools.

The report states that "Current legislation is inadequate to tackle unregistered schools. It limits our powers and allows institutions to exploit loopholes about definitions of education. The existence of unregistered schools is possible because there is no requirement to register a child as home educated, so there is no record of children who have never been in school."

Ofsted has previously warned that "flimsy" laws mean that children are sometimes left in "shocking" conditions.

Almost ten years ago the Jewish Chronicle first raised the issue of children disappearing from the education system at age 13 and being "systematically undereducated in secular studies" in unregulated schools. Since then the National Secular Society has repeatedly called on the DfE to confront the problem, warning that allowing children from minority faith backgrounds to languish in illegal religious schools amounted to "the bigotry of low expectations".

In January 2016, the Department for Education set up a special task force dedicated to investigating illegal schools.

The taskforce has so far identified 291 suspected unregistered schools ­– a high proportion of which are faith schools – and issued warning notices to 38 schools which it suspects are operating illegally. Thirty-four settings have closed or ceased operating illegally. Despite this no founders of unregulated religious schools have been prosecuted.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of the NSS, said: "All schools should prepare pupils for life in modern Britain by giving them a good understanding of the basic values that underpin a free, equal and tolerant society. There's no reason why children from conservative religious backgrounds shouldn't receive the same standard of education as all other children. Too many religious schools are failing their pupils by shielding them from the social realities of modern life and preparing them only for life in insular religious communities.

"Meanwhile, unregistered schools are an endemic problem that requires a robust response. Criminal offences are being committed and children and young people's rights are being fundamentally undermined. This abuse of children ­­– and on such an industrial scale – shames Britain. All relevant agencies must work together to tackle this problem once and for all."

Discuss this on Facebook.

Widespread support for inclusive secular schooling in Hackney

Posted: Tue, 12 Dec 2017 13:36

A consultation on educational proposals by the London borough of Hackney has revealed extensive support for inclusive secular education, with just 6% of residents supporting denominational schooling.

The consultation by Hackney Council, which ran from 28 November 2016 to 21 July 2017 and received over 2,500 responses, asked respondents if they agreed or disagreed with a number of policy proposals for schools in the borough. Eighty-three per cent of respondents agreed that "Hackney schools should be non-denominational".

Respondents felt that Hackney schools had "comparatively low segregation between pupils from different backgrounds" and this should "be safeguarded by the local authority". The consultation comes after 15 years of school reform in the borough and echoes responses from a 2003 a survey of residents at the beginning of the process which showed "clear demand for non-selective, non-denominational, mixed-sex comprehensive schools".

The religion and belief makeup of the respondents was broadly in line with British averages (as judged by the British Social Attitudes Survey), and the report showed no correlation between respondents' religious beliefs and support for non-denominational schooling.

The National Secular Society's faith schools campaigner, Alastair Lichten, said: "Efforts to paint opposition to faith based schools as an 'atheist issue' or anti-theist cause just don't fly. While the non-religious majority do face particular discrimination by faith schools, support for non-denominational inclusive schools is broad across all religion and belief groups. Whatever their religious backgrounds the vast majority of people are more concerned by educational standards than religious inculcation when choosing their child's school."

Members of the borough's Charedi Jewish community had called for a boycott of the consultation, claiming that asking for views on illegal schools and non-denominational schooling was 'anti-religious'. A consultation event with members of the Charedi community revealed suspicion of the Council's efforts to tackle illegal unregistered schooling.

Respondents claimed that the borough's general school provision was not "of interest to their community" and that they should be "engaged in a bespoke way" – something the NSS described as "the very definition of insular".

Elsewhere in the consultation, 65% of residents say they were concerned with unregistered (illegal) schools. Seventy-seven per cent supported compulsory registration of home school pupils to stop them disappearing from the education system.

One resident told the consultation: "I am concerned about the number of unregistered faith schools in the borough which do not appear to be regulated by local or national bodies; do not provide a broad curriculum and whose buildings are not safe or fit for purpose."

Mr Lichten added: "It's disappointing to see a religious community again painting efforts to protect children's educational rights as an attack on them. Overall the consultation is positive news. Hackney like many areas of the country needs to increase its school provision. Given the country's changing religious demographics and opposition to religiously segregated schools, these new schools should not be based around religious identity, but should be welcoming to all.

"We will be working with supporters across the UK to help them pressure their local authorities to safeguard and expand inclusive secular school provision."

More information

Research and reports