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
Northern Ireland: Secularists support moves to integrate education
Posted: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 10:03
The National Secular Society has called for more efforts to integrate education, promote citizenship education and reduce discrimination against pupils and teachers in Northern Ireland.
The Society welcomed proposals by Alliance MLA by Kellie Armstrong to boost integrated education, which brings children, staff and families from different religious and non-religious backgrounds together into the same schools.
Currently, the "extent to which state education is religiously segregated in Northern Ireland is unique both in the UK and among developed nations", the NSS said.
In a response to a consultation on a Private Members Bill proposed by Ms Armstrong, the Society said that "efforts to integrate Northern Ireland's education system remain woefully slow" and offered its support to her proposals to accelerate the integration of the Northern Ireland education system.
Armstrong proposed the bill to provide for the "increasing number of parents and children want to attend an integrated school", noting that "integrated education is still seen as an integral part of healing a divided society."
But at the moment the process for a school to transform is "lengthy and complex", which has "created an extra barrier for those who wish to see integrated provision in their area."
She also pointed out that integrating schools would have financial benefits for taxpayers: "It can help reduce the cost of maintaining empty school places, it enables funding to be directed toward pupils rather than sustaining a divided school estate, and it improves sustainability, making it easier to fund the modernisation of the school estate."
In 2015 the Audit Office calculated that there were 71,000 empty school places in Northern Ireland – one fifth of the total. The Society said that "a segregated system of any type is by its nature inefficient."
The NSS has said that the Northern Ireland Department of Education should have a duty to work with schools and authorities to ensure that a school becomes integrated within five years of proposing the transition.
In 2016 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child called upon Northern Ireland to promote "a fully integrated education system and carefully monitor the provision of shared education, with the participation of children, in order to ensure that it facilitates social integration".
The proposed bill would require the Department of Education to "actively promote" integration, and Armstrong said the Department should "set minimum targets for children being educated in integrated schools within the next decade."
To speed up the school transformation process, the NSS suggested that the threshold of parents required to petition for integration to be lowered, and that school governors are required to give consideration to integration at a regular interval. The NSS also proposed new mechanisms to trigger the transformation process where it was clear that segregation was causing significant school capacity problems, and also to "include the views of potential parents that are excluded from the (potentially integratable) school due to their religion or belief".
The National Secular Society said that citizenship education plays an essential part in "fostering good community cohesion and children's rights" and welcomed proposals to increase the prominence of citizenship education which it said would help Northern Irish schools meet their public sector equality duty and duties under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The consultation comes at the same time that the Integrated Education Fund have launched the Integrate My School initiative to support grassroots transformation movements, along with resources to help lobby on integrated education in the upcoming election.
On the question of teacher discrimination the NSS said that no qualified teacher should ever be discriminated against in a state school on religious grounds.
NSS campaigns officer Alastair Lichten said, "Today's schools are where tomorrow's sectarianism or tolerance will be fostered. We hope that these issues are taken seriously by all parties in the upcoming election and the new assembly acts to increase integration across Northern Ireland's schools."
“All schools” must provide sex education, says Labour MP in appeal for Conservative support
Posted: Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:51
Labour MP Stella Creasy has written in Conservative Home appealing for cross-party support to make sex and relationships education (SRE) mandatory in all schools, including faith schools.
Recent efforts to secure mandatory SRE in schools have failed and some Conservative MPs were accused of filibustering an attempt by Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas to make PSHE compulsory in all state schools.
Writing for Conservative Home, Stella Creasy MP wrote that she wanted to offer an "olive branch" to Conservative MPs.
"Opportunities for progress" in other areas shouldn't be lost while Parliament grapples with the process of exiting the European Union, she argued.
The Labour MP urged Conservative politicians to consider supporting her amendment to the Children and Social Work Bill, which is "about giving every child a legal right to learn about sexual consent as part of safeguarding them."
"For the benefit of the kids, I'm asking you to do something uncomfortable and work with your opponents," she wrote.
"Across the House there are members who support the provision of sex and relationship education (SRE) to all young people. Concerns about children living in a world of Snapchat, Tinder and sexting are widespread, as is recognition that teaching them about healthy relationships and what abuse is can help victims come forward. Several Select Committee Chairs from both Labour and Conservative have pledged their support."
She said that "attempts at cross-party consensus are breaking down as time runs out to get this right."
Creasy said that the Government was "prevaricating" on a pledge to bring forward proposals on mandatory SRE, and without amendments to the Children and Social Work Bill "it is difficult to see when or how else any statutory guarantee of provision of SRE can be introduced."
The Labour MP offered to withdraw her amendment to the Bill "if the Government offers alternative legislation that covers all kids and all schools in an inclusive and age appropriate way."
The amendment specifies that "For the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children a local authority in England must ensure that pupils educated in their area receive appropriate personal, social and health education."
The National Secular Society advocates for all children and young people, including pupils at faith schools, to have a statutory entitlement to impartial and age-appropriate SRE, with no parental opt-out.
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)
