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
NSS supports plans to regulate unregistered schools
Posted: Wed, 13 May 2020 15:12
The National Secular Society has expressed support for plans to regulate settings providing full-time education to children and define what constitutes a school in England.
In a submission to a Department for Education consultation, the NSS said it "strongly" agreed that "any full-time setting providing education to children ought to be regulated".
The society also agreed that "what is 'full-time' and 'school' ought to be defined more clearly".
The DfE is proposing changes to the way independent educational settings are regulated, in an attempt to close loopholes which can allow those who run them to avoid registration.
The NSS has long worked to raise awareness of some religious groups' use of illegal schools and campaigned to protect the rights of children within them.
NSS response to other provisions
The DfE also plans to introduce a threshold for registration of 18 hours' education per week and to allow a faster legal process of deregistering failing independent schools in some circumstances.
In response the NSS said:
- The 18-hour threshold could be exploited. As a result a definition of an independent school may need to be "flexible and holistic", for example by taking into account the number of days a school opens across a normal school year.
- Enabling quicker deregistration would "help tackle the problem of schools going through repeated cycles of failure". The society highlighted concerns that some independent faith schools have repeatedly failed but continued to operate.
The DfE also proposes to link the need to register to children's attendance rather than the time spent on tuition, and only to require registration of education taking place during school hours.
The NSS also agreed in principle with these plans, but warned that flexibility was needed to account for the risk that bad actors could exploit loopholes.
NSS comment
NSS head of education Alastair Lichten said: "The fact that children are languishing in illegal schools in Britain is a scandal, and it's encouraging to see the government taking this issue increasingly seriously. Religious sensitivities mustn't be allowed to obstruct efforts to protect children's fundamental right to an education.
"The government's plans would enhance safeguarding and make it harder to indoctrinate children in unregistered schools. They are therefore largely welcome, although there are areas where they could be improved.
"These proportionate proposals would also provide clarity and reassurance for those institutions offering genuinely supplemental education."
Notes
- In 2018 two people were convicted of running an unregistered faith school for the first time. There have been a handful of subsequent convictions for running unregistered schools since.
- The DfE's consultation was suspended last week, shortly after the NSS submitted its response, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
End faith-based selection to promote fairer admissions, NSS says
Posted: Fri, 1 May 2020 10:46
Faith schools' ability to select pupils on religious grounds presents an "unnecessary barrier" to efforts to improve the socio-economic diversity of schools' intakes, the National Secular Society has said.
The NSS made the point in response to a consultation held by The Sutton Trust, which champions social mobility in education and is aiming to create guidance on admissions policies.
The NSS, which campaigns against religious discrimination in school admissions, noted that extensive research (see below) has found religious selection undermines efforts to promote diversity.
NSS response
In its consultation response, the NSS noted that:
- Exemptions within the Equality Act of 2010 make it lawful for faith schools to discriminate against pupils on the grounds of religion or belief. The society called for these exemptions to be removed.
- Faith schools are permitted to prioritise children on a religious basis in their admissions policies when oversubscribed.
- Oversubscribed voluntary aided faith schools and many academies are allowed to prioritise children on a religious basis in up to 100% of their places.
- Faith schools often use complex oversubscription criteria when allocating places.
NSS spokesperson Megan Manson said: "Religious selection in school admissions is both unfair on the children and families it affects and bad for society, as it encourages segregation and normalises discrimination.
"Any serious effort to promote diversity in schools' intakes should seek to tackle this issue. We hope the Sutton Trust will recommend closing the loopholes in equality legislation which allow religious selection, which would be the best way to achieve this."
Impact of faith-based education and selection on diversity: research
- In 2016 a Sutton Trust analysis found it was "generally true" that non-religious schools were "not particularly socially selective" while "Roman Catholic and other religious primary schools are, regardless of governance status".
- The same analysis found that socially selective primary schools tended to use "lengthy and more complex oversubscription criteria".
- In 2013 the trust's research also found that six per cent of all parents with a child at a state school admitted to attending church services specifically to get their child into a faith school. Wealthier families were more likely to do this.
- In 2016 government data found that the intake in free schools designated for minority faiths in England had been predominantly from pupils from similar ethnic backgrounds.
Read more: Discrimination, inconvenience, unfairness: the harm caused by faith school admissions – blog by Megan Manson for No More Faith Schools.
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)
