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
National Secular Society welcomes call for faith schools to face Ofsted inspections of their religious teaching
Posted: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:00
The National Secular Society has welcomed calls from Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt for religious teaching in faith schools to be inspected by Ofsted.
In remarks at a Progress event earlier this week, Hunt said that whilst he understood the "principle" of "other communities of different faiths" having their own schools on the basis of "religious equality", this had to be considered against what Hunt called the growing "segregation" in British cities.
David Aaronovitch, the Times columnist, posed questions to Mr Hunt and asked whether the Labour government, since 1997, had opened up "the 'why not us too'" argument with religious minorities, who had called for their own faith schools on the basis of equality with existing Christian schools.
The Shadow Education Secretary stated that "you cannot have a situation where you have these schools as islands, either around ethnicity or religion". Hunt said that this was "exactly what we tried to undo in terms of Northern Ireland", where religious schools separated the children of Protestant and Catholic parents in education.
Though the Shadow Education Secretary said that "faith schools remained an important part of the English schools landscape", he went on to state that Labour would end the Free Schools programme, which Hunt said had resulted in schools "not delivering a broad curriculum".
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager for the National Secular Society, welcomed the policy announcement. He said: "It is vital that Ofsted inspects the religious teaching taking place faith schools in order to both uphold the integrity of a state education, and to protect the right of children to a broad range of knowledge.
"Any education about religion or belief in publicly funded schools should be impartial, objective, relevant and academically rigorous – children and young people deserve no less.
"One of the crucial objectives of education should be to be to promote community cohesion. This is not achieved by schools teaching the superiority of one belief system over another – and Ofsted should be able to step in if they find that happening."
Hunt mentioned the "worrying trend in terms of ethnic identification through schooling" and also drew attention to the findings of the Cantle report published over a decade ago, which had found that white and Asian residents of Northern towns were living "parallel lives".
Aaronovitch raised the example of Jewish children, whom he said are now far more likely to attend Jewish faith schools than they were twenty years ago. The day after Hunt made his remarks; the Guardian reported that the Beis Yaakov orthodox Jewish school had failed a no-notice Ofsted inspection. Ofsted found "major gaps in students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Students are not provided with sufficient opportunities to learn about or understand people of other faiths or cultures".
After hearing evidence from a former pupil of a Jewish faith school at an All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group meeting last week, Lord Warner said that "indoctrination, rather than education is taking place".
Hunt said the "absolutist answer" to the problems faced today of "no more faith schools" was not practical given the "forces pushing against this," but said that Labour's answer was that "Ofsted inspects all schools on a broad and balanced curriculum". Hunt also called for "local oversight and accountability".
Hunt also argued for "curriculum stability" and warned that the UK could not have a new government coming in after every election and completely rewriting the syllabus.
Stephen Evans said: "We would like to see publicly funded faith schools phased out. We're some way off that yet, but it is encouraging to at least see the role of such schools being examined. Dividing children by the faith of their parents has led to terrible situations across the world, and entrenched sectarian divisions. We don't want to see any more of that in the UK."
European Commission dismisses NSS complaint over employment discrimination in faith schools
Posted: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 14:03
The European Commission has announced it will take no further action against the UK Government after investigating complaints, submitted by the National Secular Society, concerning whether UK legislation relating to state funded 'faith schools' breaches European employment laws in relation to discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief.
The complaints centred on the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 and Education Act 2011, and the extent to which they permit discrimination against teachers in state funded 'faith schools'.
The NSS argued, after taking legal advice, that the level of discrimination permitted in publicly funded faith schools against non-religious teachers and those not of the faith of the school goes beyond that which is permitted by European Directive 2000/78/EC, which establishes a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.
However, in a letter to the National Secular Society the European Commission says the UK Government has provided "sufficient clarification" regarding its interpretation of Section 58 and 60, which it says "merely enables faith-based education and is limited to ensure the maintenance of the religious character of the school".
The Commission also failed to uphold a similar complaint submitted by the NSS relating to discrimination against staff at denominational (generally Catholic) schools in Scotland, where a teacher's "religious belief and character" must be approved by the Church.
Voluntary controlled faith schools in England and Wales can apply a religious test in appointing one fifth of teaching staff, which (since 2006) can include the Head Teacher. In voluntary aided faith schools, a religious test can be applied in appointing, remunerating and promoting all teaching staff. In addition, teachers can be disciplined or dismissed for conduct which is "incompatible with the precepts of the school's religion", which could apply to almost every teacher, whether religious or not.
The National Secular Society said the justification for allowing the level of discrimination – that it is necessary to maintain a religious character – didn't stand up to scrutiny.
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "We should be looking to remove all religion and belief based discrimination from state education, but if voluntary controlled faith schools can preserve their 'religious character' by reserving one fifth of teaching posts for teachers that share the faith of the school, how can it be justifiable for voluntary aided schools to apply discriminatory criteria to every teaching post?"
The European Commission's decision came as new finding revealed faith schools are experiencing difficulties in recruiting heads; in 2009/10 there was a re-advertisement rate of 43 per cent in Anglican schools and 61 per cent of Catholic schools.
Researcher Janet Goodall, who is leading a survey on educational leadership for the University of Bath, said there are "additional expectations" on head teachers at Catholic schools, who "need to be a faith leader themselves".
Stephen Evans said: "We don't need 'faith leaders' to run publicly funded schools. Pupils will be far better served by schools employing the most effective school leaders.
"Unfortunately, the Commission's interpretation of the EU Directive seems to us to contradict its stated aim to combat discrimination on grounds of religion or belief. The victims of the Commission's willingness to justify discrimination will be the suitably qualified teachers who will continue to be blocked from teaching posts, and the pupils, who instead of being taught by the best teacher for the job, will have to make do with the one chosen for their demonstration of piety, whether sincere or not."
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)
