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
Former education secretary calls for abolition of collective worship law and reform of RE
Posted: Mon, 15 Jun 2015 06:22
The obligation on state schools in England and Wales to provide a daily act of collective worship should be scrapped, according to former education secretary Charles Clarke.
In a series of suggested reforms, he called for a new national syllabus for teaching religion and claimed the phrase religious education should be changed, suggesting 'religious and moral education' as an alternative.
Mr Clarke made the recommendations in a report on the future of religion and RE in schools by Westminster Faith Debates.
The report, co-authored by Linda Woodhead, professor of politics, philosophy and religion at Lancaster University, stops short of calling for an end to religious discrimination against pupils in faith school admissions but says more should to be done to develop fairer admissions procedures.
The law in England and Wales provides that children at all maintained schools "shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship". Even in schools with no religious designation, the worship must be "wholly or mainly of a Christian character".
The National Secular Society, which has been advocating the removal of compulsory worship for decades, welcomed some of the report's findings, calling the policy proposals a "positive step in the right direction".
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns Manager, said: "The role of religion in schools needs to be thoroughly reviewed. The obligation on schools to provide worship is an anachronism; the legacy of a society unrecognisable from the diverse and pluralistic Britain of today where citizens hold a wide variety of religious beliefs, and increasingly, no religious beliefs whatsoever.
"School communities, even in schools with a religious character, are made up pupils from a variety of religion and belief backgrounds. These are places of learning, not places of worship and this report goes some way to recognising that.
The NSS also cautiously welcomed the proposal to reform religious education.
"If we are to teach religion in schools, we certainly need a much more objective and even-handed approach. Religious education should be absorbed into a new National Curriculum subject under a different name that covers a variety of religious, non-religious and secular philosophies and worldviews", said Mr Evans.
While the NSS is supportive of many of the report's recommendations, the Society is critical of the report's defence of the continuation of faith schools.
Mr Evans added: "We must go further and challenge the whole concept of faith schools. Religious identities are not a good, logical or just criteria to organise schooling around. What we really need is a fully secular, inclusive and fair education system that teaches pupils about religions and beliefs with no attempt to inculcate them into a particular faith."
Charles Clarke, who served as education secretary from 2002 to 2004, said religion in schools must be re-examined "in the light of contemporary beliefs and practices, illuminated by the latest research".
"On this basis we propose a new educational settlement which can better foster genuine understanding of modern religion and belief, and allow young people better to explore their own and other people's religious and non-religious beliefs and come to their own conclusions", he said.
"The current requirement in statute for an act of collective worship should be abolished, and the decision about the form and character of school assemblies should be left to the governors of individual schools," he wrote.
The former Labour MP also called for a religious and moral education syllabus to be determined by the education secretary in agreement with a newly created advisory council consisting of experts on religion and education. This would follow formal consultation with representatives of religions, humanism and other belief systems.
Responding to the policy proposal, Reverend Nigel Genders, the Church of England's chief education officer said the Church "strongly supported the statutory requirement for collective worship in all schools".
He said the Church remained committed to the provision of high quality RE in schools, which he argued was "vital for a balanced understanding of the world today where more than 80% of the population are people of faith".
The Department for Education responded to the report by saying RE was "vitally important to help children develop the British values of tolerance, respect and understanding for others".
A DfE Spokesperson added: "Faith schools are an important part of our diverse education system, allowing parents to choose to have their child educated in line with the tenets of a faith".
Tristram Hunt criticises “absurdities” caused by having faith schools in the education system
Posted: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 16:34
Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt has warned that faith schools leave little hope for an integrated education system in the UK.
Warning of the demands placed on the education system and taxpayers by religious groups, Mr Hunt wrote in the Guardian: "When every mosque, temple, synagogue, church, chapel and gurdwara wants its own free school, what hope have we for a national education system that integrates rather than segregates?"
He added that "one of the many absurdities" of the Government's education policy is "a school commissioning system that militates against cohesion, while demanding a unified sense of British values."
There have been repeated warnings for many years that faith schools are divisive and cause social segregation. In March 2015, a report by the Social Integration Commission called on the Department for Education to restrict new faith schools, and warned that "increased numbers of children [are] being educated in peer groups dominated by a single faith group or community".
The Shadow Education Secretary described the problems caused by religion in schools as "thorny". He said that questions of "religion, ethnicity and school provision" were even "more thorny" than serious concerns over academic attainment of pupils from white working-class backgrounds.
The shadow education secretary also criticised the DfE's plan to open a further 500 free schools in the next five years "whether needed or not".
Mr Hunt stressed the need to "be brave in challenging some of the consensus areas of education policy."
The National Secular Society welcomed Mr Hunt's comments. Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "We've long argued that the product of faith schools will be a more divided society in years to come. We are pleased to see more-and-more politicians starting to articulate this.
"The rush to open more free schools may well result in a proliferation of faith-based schools, further promoting religious polarisation and making it difficult for parents in some areas to get the secular education they expect.
"We now hope Mr Hunt's party will find the courage to review the outdated educational settlement between religion and state that channels public money into faith schools, and instead advocate for a secularised and inclusive school system free from discrimination and undue religious influence.
Mr Hunt's comments came after it emerged over the weekend that a Church of England school in Bury may face a legal challenge over its admissions policy after a complaint that it was indirectly discriminatory on grounds of race was rejected by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. The Accord Coalition said that religious selection in schools can act as a "proxy for selection by race".
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)
