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
Ireland to consider banning schools from using religion in admissions
Posted: Mon, 16 Jan 2017 14:57
The Irish Minister for Education and Skills has set out plans to tackle the religious discrimination endemic in the Irish education system, hitting out at the unfairness of a baptism requirement for school places.
But the proposals to reduce religious discrimination in the Irish education system have been described as "deeply flawed" by Irish secularists.
90% of primary schools in Ireland are under the control of the Catholic Church, with a further 6% controlled by other religious groups including Protestants.
In his speech, education minister Richard Bruton said religious parents' wishes to educate their children in their faith should be respected but that non-Christian parents should not be unfairly disadvantaged.
The requirement for parents to baptise their children to gain a school place was unfair, he added.
The minister set out four options aimed at removing discrimination against families who don't share a school's faith, but secular campaigners have criticised all of them as inadequate.
The four options include a proposal to stop schools discriminating against local non-religious families in favour of more distant religious ones, or an option of allowing priority on religious grounds, but only when children already live within a school's catchment area.
Mr Bruton also set out how a quota system could work, with a "limited proportion of places" reserved on religious grounds.
The last option mooted is an "outright prohibition on religious schools using religion as a factor in admissions".
Education Equality welcomed the Irish Government's acknowledgement that reform was needed, but said that three of the four proposals would "continue some form of religious discrimination." Only an outright ban on using religion in admissions would remove discrimination in that area, they said.
However Education Equality spokesperson Sarah Lennon said that the public consultation was "nothing more than a delay".
Without more fundamental reform to the religious ethos of Irish schools and "a workable approach to opting out of religious instruction and faith formation, then 4 and 5 year old children will still experience segregation and exclusion during the school day," she added.
Atheist Ireland warned that the proposals could actually be counter-productive and could expand the ability of the Catholic Church to evangelise within the state-education system.
They said that mandating Catholic schools accept non-religious and non-Catholic pupils was not a solution: "Some in the Church would prefer to only teach already committed Catholics, but the Church officially sees schools as a way of evangelising minorities."
Atheist Ireland cited a Vatican document urging schools to "seize" the opportunity of a "large non-Christian presence" as part of a "tradition of [the] Church's missionary activity."
Faith school heads and governors raise concerns about academy religious takeovers
Posted: Wed, 11 Jan 2017 10:57
Religious leaders are set to steamroll faith schools into massive academy chains, centralising church control over the state-funded schools.
Headteachers and staff have raised serious opposition to the plans, which would see a school's diocese taking direct control over it, with the authority "to appoint and dismiss all trustees", TES reported.
The Government dropped plans to compel all state schools in England to become academies in the face of overwhelming opposition in Parliament. But diocesan proposals, seen by TES, have been described as "forced academisation by the back door."
Rob Kelsall of the NAHT headteachers' union told TES that headteachers were worried about a loss of autonomy if the proposals are enacted.
Under the plans 600 church schools would be run by large academy trusts, each overseeing 22 schools.
Schools will have to opt-in to the plans, but TES questioned whether headteachers and governors would truly feel able to defy the wishes of their "highly influential" diocese.
In December the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster proposed to headteachers and governors that 180 schools join 12 multi-academy trusts (MATs), with each trust governed by a single board which would act "as the governing body for up to 15 schools".
TES reported that the London Diocesan Board for Schools sought to run 156 schools through MATs, appointing directors to each trust.
The Board claimed that were would be "no pressure" on schools to become academies "unless there are benefits for pupils in converting".
One governor of a Catholic primary school, who was appointed to her post by the Diocese Board, said she was "gobsmacked" by the plans and that schools were essentially told "you have to become an academy in the next five years".
She said that the balance was "right" at the moment, but that under the plans "I worry about what is coming" because of the Diocese gaining more control over the school.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster told TES that academisation would allow the promotion of "Catholic mission and identity" in schools.
The National Secular Society has previously written to the Government expressing concerns that the push to turn schools into academies would increase religious control of taxpayer-funded faith schools.
In June the NSS wrote to Nick Gibb the Schools Minister to raise the example of one VC primary school in Winchester which has been told to "join a trust with a majority of church trustees" despite the unanimous opposition of governors.
Voluntary Controlled schools currently have a minority of their governors appointed by the church; but as a part of a religious academy trusts VC schools "will suddenly find themselves under the direct control of the Diocese," the NSS warned.
NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans said: "At a time when the nation is drifting away from Christianity it seems perverse that churches are gaining ever greater control and influence over young people's education.
"Growing irreligiosity means religious control of publicly funded education is both inappropriate and, in the long term, wholly unsustainable."
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)
