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
Diverse schools needed to breakdown worsening ethnic segregation
Posted: Thu, 3 Nov 2016 08:48
Parents should be encouraged to place pupils in "diverse schools" to help tackle growing ethnic segregation, a major report has warned.
The report, co-written by Professor Cantle and Professor Eric Kaufmann, said that ethnic segregation in the UK risked breeding "intolerance and prejudice" and that "any form of contact does break down stereotypes."
Professor Cantle, who warned fifteen years ago that Britons were living "parallel lives", said that "the focus of policy needs to shift" to encourage mixing between different ethnic groups. This included encouragement "with respect to placing pupils in diverse school" to "create a positive choice for mixed areas and a shared society."
Professor Cantle has been highly critical of Government plans to drop the current requirement for new religious schools to keep at least half of their places open to local children, regardless of religion or belief.
His warning comes as a Populus poll commissioned by the Accord Coalition and the British Humanist Association found overwhelming opposition to selection by faith, including among religious voters.
The large poll of over 2,000 people found that 72% oppose all religious selection in schools. Just 15% of voters favour religious discrimination in admissions.
Notably, the poll found significant majorities against religious discrimination by faith schools among religious groups.
63% of Catholics are against religious selection, and 68% of all Christians are.
82% of Muslims opposed religious discrimination in school admissions.
Rabbi Jonathan Romain of the Accord Coalition said "The poll highlights how religious discrimination is out of step with mainstream values in modern Britain. Schools are one of the very worst places where it should be tolerated. They are the state funded institutions that should be doing most to prepare people for life in a diverse society, not segregating and discriminating against children on the grounds of faith."
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns director, said: "The unfairness of school admissions policies that discriminate on religious grounds is there for all to see, but it's clear that many people also now recognise the dangers of separating children by their parents' faith.
"Education policy should be focussing on fostering cohesion and breaking down barriers. The Government's plan to open a new wave of religiously selective faith schools will only exacerbate the growing segregation we're seeing across the country and sow the seeds for yet more division."
On the day the poll came out the London Assembly passed a motion opposing the Government's abolition of the 50% admissions cap for new faith schools.
The motion, proposed by Tom Copley AM, called on the Mayor of London "to make representations to the Government to keep the 50% cap in place."
Plans to increase discriminatory faith school admissions ‘reveals an alarming democratic deficit’
Posted: Fri, 28 Oct 2016 09:03
The education secretary's power to relax faith school admissions without parliamentary approval or scrutiny reveals a disturbing democratic deficit, the National Secular Society has warned.
Under current rules, newly established faith schools must limit the number of pupils they select on the basis of faith to 50%. However, under proposals published by the Government, religious-based free schools will, when oversubscribed, be able to select all of their pupils by religion.
The Government is currently consulting on its plans to remove the 50% cap, but the NSS has warned that powers granted to the education secretary mean there is no meaningful mechanism for MPs to challenge the "regressive move" towards more discriminatory admissions.
The 50% cap is applied to free schools through their funding agreement with the Secretary of State. Any changes to the 50% cap that ministers want to make will not require legislation.
Following publication of the proposals the NSS called on the Education Select Committee to launch an inquiry into faith-based admissions. However, the committee's Chair, Neil Carmichael MP, has confirmed to the NSS that it "will not be able to accommodate [such an inquiry] in the foreseeable future".
Stephen Evans, campaigns director of the National Secular Society, said:
"School admissions policies that discriminate on religious grounds are unfair and unjust and need to be eliminated. For the Government to be able to increase levels of religious discrimination without parliamentary approval reveals an alarming democratic deficit at the heart of our school system.
"By lifting the 50% cap the Government will be facilitating a proliferation of discriminatory and divisive faith schools. This may well serve the desires of some religious organisations but it fails to serve the needs of the majority of parents and pupils who simply want good schools, rather than religious schools – particularly ones that they will not have fair access to.
"The fact that such a regressive change can be being made at the whim of the Prime Minister reveals a disturbing democratic void – one which religious groups will be more than happy to exploit."
The Catholic Education Service has said the removal of the cap will allow it to open "between 30 and 40" new publicly funded Catholic schools, creating "thousands of new Catholic school places across the country."
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)
