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: council should tackle discriminatory school admissions in review
Posted: Wed, 5 Aug 2020 16:22
The National Secular Society has called on Liverpool City Council to consider the impact of discriminatory admissions policies in faith schools as it reviews its policies towards school admissions.
Last week the council set up a panel to consider how rules on admissions disadvantage children from ethnic and religious minority backgrounds.
The review comes after a group of Muslim parents in the city said admissions criteria for faith schools and academies nearby meant their children often ended up having to travel long distances to school.
The parents also said some of the girls had faced anti-Muslim abuse on the journey.
In a letter to Barbara Murray, the council's cabinet member for education, the NSS welcomed the review and recommended steps which the council could take to improve access to inclusive schools.
Contents of NSS letter
The NSS said the council should:
- Consider the impact of faith schools in restricting school choice and suitability as it monitors local school provision.
- Explicitly tell the government that it would prefer inclusive community schools if new schools were required in Liverpool.
- Ensure the admissions policies for existing voluntary controlled faith schools, where councils are the admissions authority, did not endorse religious discrimination.
- Ensure its wider policies supported inclusive schooling and prioritised social cohesion.
The NSS also highlighted evidence that local families had been affected by discriminatory admissions policies:
- The society is currently working with a parent in Liverpool who is concerned that her child with special educational needs may not be able to access a suitable non-faith school.
- Elsewhere a family in the city was unable to send their child to a school just five metres from their house because they didn't attend the local church.
- NSS supporters in Liverpool have noted that many local parents attend church just to secure a place at a convenient school.
NSS comment
NSS head of education Alastair Lichten said the council should "take this opportunity to make Liverpool's schools more inclusive".
"The council is rightly concerned that school admissions processes may be exacerbating racial and social inequalities. It's unjustifiable that some children have to travel across the city to school and appalling that some have faced anti-Muslim abuse while doing so.
"Admissions policies in faith schools are unfair and far too complex nationally, and that needs national attention. But there are a series of practical steps available to councillors which would help to defend inclusive community schooling and make children more welcome. We urge them to take them."
Need for national response
The NSS's letter also noted that many necessary changes to address the problem would need to be addressed at national level.
In 2018 a government-commissioned report found that poorer pupils and pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds were significantly less likely to get into church schools than their counterparts.
A 2018 report from the NSS, The Choice Delusion, also highlighted the ways faith schools impede on school choice for many families, including through discriminatory admissions policies.
Plans for new faith schools not being properly scrutinised, says NSS
Posted: Sat, 18 Jul 2020 08:00
Proposals to open 19 new faith schools in England are not being properly scrutinised because of a lack of transparency around them, the National Secular Society has warned.
The NSS has written to the Department for Education after the DfE rejected the NSS's request to see details of proposals for the schools.
In its letter the NSS has requested an independent review of that decision and accused the department of attempting to "shield controversial decisions from scrutiny" and "exclude the public from debating them".
The 19 faith schools are among a group of new schools which were proposed in wave 14 of the government's free schools programme in February. They include 14 Christian, three Islamic and two Sikh faith schools.
DfE's logic for rejecting request
The department rejected the NSS's request on the basis that the public interest in releasing the information did not outweigh the arguments against disclosure.
It said the process of assessing applications should be "free from speculation and lobbying until the final decision is made".
It also said some groups may "be discouraged from applying" to run schools or "feel under pressure to produce future applications that avoid prejudice from any interest and attention" if it released the details.
It cited exemptions outlined in section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in support of its decision.
NSS concerns
The NSS's letter said the DfE's approach failed to account for the public interest in seeing proposals during their assessment phase and would undermine opportunities for "open and informed public debate and feedback".
"Transparency over the application/proposals does not reduce the scope for full and frank exchange of views or impinge on the privacy of the final decision maker.
"Public scrutiny is not an ill to be avoided, but essential in a democratic society."
The society added that section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act was "not intended to shield decision making from criticism or debate".
In a blog on the NSS's No More Faith Schools website earlier this month, the society's head of education Alastair Lichten warned of a "damaging democratic deficit" around the applications.
He also noted that at least seven of the 19 schools had been proposed in areas where government data suggested there was minimal or no need for new school places.
NSS comment
Explaining the decision to send the letter, Mr Lichten said: "Divisive faith schools are being foisted on communities that may not want or need them as a result of the government's opaque process for assessing applications.
"The decision to reject this freedom of information request, which is based on spurious logic, will exacerbate these problems. It will prevent opportunities for feedback and input and undermine good policy making.
"Ministers mustn't be able to spend taxpayers' money deepening faith-based control over education without adequate scrutiny, debate or consultation."
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)
