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
Faith school slammed for book advocating death for gay people
Posted: Tue, 20 Jul 2021 16:25
An independent faith school has failed an inspection after a book calling for gay people to be killed was found in its library.
The book, entitled "Islam on Homosexuality", was discovered during an Ofsted inspection at Institute of Islamic Education, an independent Islamic school in Dewsbury, in May.
The book said "participants of the homosexual act should be slained [sic]" because "in filth and mischief of [sic] this act surpasses adultery", according to an Ofsted report published today.
It also said "the evil doers should be put to death".
The book had been stamped by the school as a library book.
A book with the same title (pictured) is described on Amazon UK as an "authentic book on the evils of Homosexuality containing discussion in the light of the Quran, Hadith, History and medicine".
While the headteacher said the book should not be in the school library, other leaders stated that the book was for 'research purposes', according to the report.
The report said: "By permitting this book to be freely accessible to pupils, leaders are failing to promote respect and tolerance for others, a fundamental British value."
NSS comment
NSS head of policy and research Megan Manson said the findings were "horrifying".
She said: "It is appalling that a book calling for gay people to be executed could be found in a school library.
"It is even more disturbing that some school leaders appeared to defend the school's decision to make this book available to children.
"Schools have a duty to promote equality for all. Giving a space for hateful and homophobic religious propaganda clearly runs contrary to that."
The NSS has been lobbying the Department for Education to ensure that consistently failing schools are not allowed to indefinitely undermine young people's fundamental right to a quality education.
The secretary of state said a "firmer approach" would be taken to enforce the standards when there was evidence of non-compliance when independent school standards were updated in 2015.
Other failings
Ofsted inspectors identified a number of other unmet standards at the school, including:
- Leaders had not addressed the safeguarding issues found at a previous inspection "with urgency".
- Staff recruitment checks are not consistently completed before staff start their employment at the school.
- Leaders are not consistently informing the local authority when a pupil is removed from the school's roll.
- Leaders have not ensured that the site is adequately maintained, and there is no suitable environment for pupils to play outdoors.
About the school
Institute of Islamic Education is an independent Islamic boarding school for boys and young men between the ages of 11 and 25 years, located in the grounds of a mosque. Pupils are only taught secular subjects in the afternoon, with the morning devoted to an Islamic curriculum.
The school has previously told parents their children faced expulsion if they socialised with non-Muslims.
It has also forbidden children from watching TV, listening to music or reading newspapers.
Faith school ‘breaching’ equality law over sex segregation, says report
Posted: Thu, 8 Jul 2021 16:50
The school inspectorate Ofsted has said an independent faith school "appears to be in breach" of equality law by segregating male and female pupils in lessons.
Boys at Leeds Menorah School are taught about Jewish criminal and civil law but girls are not, according to a report published Wednesday.
School leaders say boys need this subject for their higher education but it is "less relevant" to girls, the report said, adding that this separation by sex appeared to be in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
Staff also told Ofsted that boys and girls are expected to sit separately in lessons.
The school was rated 'inadequate' by Ofsted in 2019 and found to not meet the standards for independent schools in follow-up visits in February 2020 and May this year.
The latest report, from the May inspection, also criticised the school for a variety of other reasons. These included its lack of information regarding relationships and sex education, areas of the site that were unsafe, and safeguarding failings in its recruitment procedures.
Sex segregation in faith schools
Segregating pupils according to sex within mixed sex schools was found to amount to unlawful sex discrimination in a landmark ruling in 2017.
The Court of Appeal found Ofsted was correct to penalise Al-Hijrah school, a state-funded Islamic school in Birmingham, for segregating boys and girls for all lessons, break and lunchtimes, school trips and school clubs.
In 2017 National Secular Society research also found a number of state-funded Jewish schools teaching different religious studies curricula to male and female pupils.
In 2019, Ofsted criticised several independent faith schools after they were found to be segregating pupils by sex.
These included Gateshead Jewish Nursery School, Markazul Uloom in Blackburn, Al-Khair School in Croydon, Rochdale Islamic Academy and The Imam Muhammad Adam Institute School in Leicester.
NSS comment
Megan Manson, head of policy and research at the NSS, welcomed Ofsted's intervention.
"Schools shouldn't be allowed to discriminate in this manner by deeming certain subjects off-limits to pupils based on their sex, or encouraging boys and girls to sit separately.
"Schools certainly shouldn't be allowed to contravene the law – they should be held to account equally, regardless of religion.
"And where schools repeatedly fail, religious sensitivities shouldn't stand in the way of the action needed to protect children's rights."
Independent faith schools which keep failing
The NSS has previously raised concerns with the government over children's rights at independent faith schools which repeatedly fail inspections, including in a letter to the Department for Education last year.
The DfE has since taken action, or indicated a willingness to take action, in some cases which the NSS has raised.
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)
