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
End faith-based selection in schools, UN committee urges
Posted: Wed, 7 Jun 2023 12:03
Schools in England should be prevented from religious discrimination in their admissions, a United Nations committee has said.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) also recommended repealing compulsory collective worship in schools and the parental right of withdrawal from sex education.
The recommendations were made in the CRC's concluding observations, published today, on the most recent periodic reports of child rights in the UK.
The National Secular Society welcomed these recommendations, which it has raised with the UN repeatedly for many years.
Discrimination in faith schools
The CRC urged the UK to "guarantee the right of all children to freedom of expression and to practise freely their religion or belief", including by "preventing the use of religion as a selection criterion for school admissions in England".
Most types of faith schools in England have exemptions from the Equality Act 2010, which enable them to prioritise children from families who share their faith if they are oversubscribed.
This can include requiring parents and children to regularly attend a local place of worship or provide evidence of baptism.
Many parents find that because they belong to no religion or a minority religion, they are unable to send their children to their local state school.
The NSS has long campaigned for the equality law exemptions for faith schools to be repealed.
The CRC also recommended "revising the education syllabus in Northern Ireland to include education on and respect for a diversity of religions".
Last year NI's High Court ruled that the country's religious education system breaches the European Convention on Human Rights due to its heavy Christian bias.
Compulsory collective worship
The CRC recommended "repealing legal provisions for compulsory attendance in collective worship" in schools.
The law in England and Wales states that children at all maintained schools "shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship". Northern Ireland and Scotland have similar laws. Even in schools with no religious designation, the worship must be "wholly or mainly of a Christian character". The UK is the only Western democracy which legally imposes worship in publicly funded schools.
The NSS has long called for collective worship laws to be abolished because they breach children and families' freedom of religion or belief.
The committee said the UK should establish "statutory guidance to ensure the right of all children, including children under 16 years of age, to withdraw from religious classes without parental consent".
Children cannot currently withdraw themselves from collective worship until they reach Sixth Form.
The NI High Court also found NI's collective worship laws breach human rights.
Relationships and sex education
The CRC said "comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based" sex education should be compulsory at all levels of education, including information on same-sex relationships and reproductive health rights. It said this should be "without the possibility for faith-based schools or parents to opt out of such education".
Parents in England, Scotland and NI can withdraw their children from sex education. While relationships and sex education is compulsory for all state schools in England, NI and Wales, faith schools may teach it from a religious perspective. NSS research in 2018 found this results in "distorted" sex education, including teaching adolescents that contraception and same-sex relationships are morally wrong. The CRC raised particular concern about discrimination against children who are LGBT.
NSS urges government to implement recommendation to make inclusive schools "a reality"
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "We welcome the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's recommendation that faith-based selection at schools be abolished.
"As the UK becomes more irreligious and religiously-diverse, more parents are finding their children locked out of their local school, simply because they don't belong to the 'right' religion. It's disgraceful that such religious discrimination is permitted in the schools we all pay for.
"We also welcome the committee's recommendation to end compulsory collective worship. Compelling children to pray to gods they do not believe in has no place in schools.
"It's high time our entire education system was transformed into a secular, inclusive one which equally welcomes children from families of all religions and beliefs. We urge the government to implement the CRC's recommendations to make this a reality."
NOTES
Other CRC recommendations which the NSS has called for include:
- "Promptly and effectively" investigating and intervening in all cases of child abuse, including in religious institutions.
- Ensuring access for adolescent girls to "age-appropriate family planning services, affordable contraceptives and safe abortion and post-abortion care services", particularly in Northern Ireland.
- Developing strategies for eliminating child marriage, female genital mutilation and 'honour' violence.
- Ending "conversion therapy" of children.
- Improving education about children's human rights among children and teachers.
Anti-science textbooks teaching creationism used in schools
Posted: Wed, 31 May 2023 10:27
Textbooks which present the theory of evolution as a conspiracy theory are being used in UK schools, a new report has revealed.
Researchers from UCL found textbooks published by Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), one of the world's largest fundamentalist Christian education groups, presented climate change denial as a fact and described evolution as an 'absurd and discredited' conspiracy.
The latest editions of the textbooks claim to show evidence that human-caused climate change is not real. They say God has a plan to prepare a new heaven and Earth with a better climate.
Despite claims by the curriculum's developers that its materials allow students to make up their own minds about evolution, the textbooks describe those who accept evolution as making an "immoral choice", with their belief being "driven by a determination to sin and to rebel against God."
ACE materials also malign the scientific community and those who accept scientific findings about evolution, cosmology, or any other field that challenges young-Earth dogma.
The report also found students are not exposed to any ideas contrary to ACE's literal interpretation of the Bible until Year 9. This is contrary to the legal requirement that schools teach a "broad and balanced curriculum", the report argues.
Although 11 schools in England and Northern Ireland are officially affiliated with ACE, due to the secretive nature of the organisations involved the actual number of schools employing ACE resources may be substantially higher.
Independent faith schools have previously been subject to regulatory action after being found teaching creationism.
The report's lead author, Dr Jenna Scaramanga, questioned how schools which rely heavily on ACE publications passed Ofsted inspections, given that the materials "clearly fail" to provide a broad and balanced science education and to teach respect for different beliefs.
Dr Scaramanga also said the way children are taught science through ACE makes them more susceptible to believing other conspiracy theories.
NSS: 'Action needed from Ofsted and DfE'
Jack Rivington, campaigns officer at the National Secular Society, said: "This report should prompt further investigation by both Ofsted and the DfE.
"The promotion of creationism and climate change denial, along with the denigration of those who accept scientific theories, is clearly inconsistent with schools' responsibility to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and promote respect for others.
"As the report makes clear, ACE's efforts at indoctrination can be deeply harmful to those on the receiving end. Authorities must now act swiftly to protect the right to an education for all children."
Image: From 7th Grade Science Pace Set by ACE
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)
