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 responds to Government consultation on school standards and 'British values'
Posted: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 13:10
The National Secular Society has backed Government plans to tackle religious extremism in schools by reinforcing principles of equality and fundamental values – but has argued that the proposed standards don't go far enough.
The new proposals strengthen the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) standard to require schools to actively promote the "fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs".
Schools will also be required to encourage students to respect other people, with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010.
However, the National Secular Society (NSS) has called on the Government to supplement the subjective terms of "respect" and "tolerance" with a specific mention of human rights to ensure students recognise that an individual's freedom of religion or belief, including non-belief, is explicitly protected by human rights and equality law. The NSS has also called for greater clarity within the revised standards over equality legislation and human rights applying to the individual rather than communities or groups as a whole.
In its submission to the Department for Education, the NSS has also argued that a new duty on schools to actively promote the values of equality should include schools leading by example, rather than them being exempt from equality legislation to enable them to discriminate against pupils on the basis of faith in their admissions.
The NSS has also called for the promotion of "partisan religious views" to be prohibited in the teaching of any subject, in the same way that existing standards prohibit schools from promoting "partisan political views". The NSS argues that schools should be required to take steps to ensure that where religious (including non-belief) issues are brought to the attention of students, they are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views.
The submission also argues that schools should be required to ensure that all aspects of its curriculum, including assemblies, are respectful and inclusive of all pupils, regardless of their religion or belief, including non-belief. Part of fulfilling this requirement would preclude a school holding acts of worship associated with a particular set of religious beliefs.
The calls were made as part of a National Secular Society submission to a Department for Education consultation on proposed new independent school standards.
New standards which are designed to raise standards in independent schools (including free schools and academies) are being introduced following cases of independent faith schools being found to be "actively promoting views that are contrary to British values, such as intolerance of other cultures and gender inequality" and exposing students to "extremist teaching and curriculum content".
The changes, such as the duty to actively promoting fundamental British values, will also be reflected in updated guidance to maintained schools, which will be issued in September 2014.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager of the National Secular Society, said: "In recent years our education system has become a free for all where various groups have been given free rein to promote particular ideologies. Such an approach has neglected both the civic purpose of education and children's best interests.
"We all have a shared interest in the way in schools prepare children and young people for life in multicultural Britain, and it is vital that throughout all aspects of education there is an emphasis on the basic values that underpin a free, equal and progressive society. This is particularly important in free schools and academies where the national curriculum is not being followed.
"These new standards will go some to in addressing concerns about extremism in schools, but will be undermined by an education system that encourages faith based schools and allows children, at such a formative time of their lives, to be separated according to the religious beliefs of their parents.
"Ultimately, seriously questions need to be asked about the role of religion in schools and whether the religious inculcation of children should be permissible at all in publicly funded education."
Claim that children's religious freedoms breached by scrapping of free transport to faith schools rejected by secularists
Posted: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 08:53
A Conservative Assembly Member for South Wales has claimed that by not providing free transport to faith schools local authorities could be denying a child's right to manifest a religion.
AM Suzy Davies's claim was made in a debate over Swansea City Council's plans to end subsidised transport to Swansea's six faith schools.
The National Secular Society has dismissed her argument as a cynical attempt to use human rights instruments to retain special privileges for Christians.
Swansea City and County Council currently provides free transport to Voluntary Aided (VA) Catholic and Church in Wales schools on a discretionary basis regardless of whether the school is the nearest available.
Councillors this week voted, by 34 votes to 17, to provide free transport to faith schools only where there is no nearer mainstream school for a pupil.
The decision was taken despite intense lobbying from faith schools and Catholic families who argue that the changes could restrict opportunities for parents to choose education at a faith school.
During a heated debate in the council chamber, Leader of the opposition Chris Holley said: "In the 30 years I have been a councillor I have never had to get up and defend my faith before. We are picking on a small minority. I can assure you that Swansea's Roman Catholic community will remember what you attacked today."
However, Will Evans, cabinet member for learning and skills, denied the move was an attack in parental choice, saying: "The opportunity for choice for parents is quite clear, they choose any school in Swansea. We have been treating faith schools more favourably over the years by providing free transport."
Raising the matter in the Welsh Assembly, regional AM Suzy Davies argued that many families have a strong faith and wish their children to be educated in a church school.
Ms Davies challenged the Transport Minister, Edwina Hart, over whether Welsh legislation in this area complied with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – which requires signatories to ensure that freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs is limited only when necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. The Minister vowed to look again at Welsh legislation.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "Not providing free buses to faith schools in no way interferes with anyone's right to manifest a religion.
"Parents are free to raise their children as they wish and their different religious and philosophical convictions should be respected in all schools. But states are under no obligation to provide faith schools, so the idea that not funding transport to them breaches anyone's rights is simply wrong.
"Article 14 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, cited by Suzy Davies, requires states to respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Rather than separating children into faith schools, the best way to respect this is to ensure children are educated in schools that teach about religion and belief, including non-belief, in an objective and pluralistic manner.
"The very schools that Ms Davies wants free transport to are still permitted by law to teach about religion solely from their own exclusive viewpoint. This, rather than the removal of transport privileges, is how young people's religious freedom is being undermined."
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)
