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
Council ends church officials’ education committee voting rights
Posted: Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:25
The National Secular Society has welcomed a decision from a council in eastern Scotland to withdraw voting rights from unelected church representatives who sit on its education committees.
Perth and Kinross Council became the first of Scotland's 32 local authorities to take the step after passing a motion which will allow only elected committee members to vote.
The NSS is now writing to Scotland's other local education authorities urging them to follow Perth and Kinross's lead.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 requires local authorities to appoint three unelected religious representatives to their education committees, at least one of whom must be Catholic and one Protestant.
According to a petition by the Edinburgh Secular Society, the Church of Scotland held the balance of power on 60% of local authority committees in 2013.
The motion in Perth and Kinross, which will come into effect from next Wednesday, was brought by independent council member Xander McDade.
He raised the issue amid public concern over church representatives' role in a recent decision to close a primary school.
Last month the council's lifelong learning committee voted to close Blairingone Primary School by eight votes to seven, with two religious representatives casting the decisive votes.
Before this week's vote McDade said: "I haven't spoken to a single person who hasn't been appalled by the fact that the decision to close this small rural school was swung by the votes of unelected religious representatives."
The NSS has long supported campaigns to remove unelected religious representatives from local authority education committees.
Last year, in a letter to the cabinet secretary for education John Swinney, the NSS urged the Scottish government to remove these positions. In response Swinney said the government did not plan to do so.
But the Scottish government recently said councils were not legally obliged to give those representatives voting rights.
NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten welcomed Perth and Kinross Council's decision.
"People of all faiths and none should and do have the right to seek election to Scotland's councils and through this secular democratic process take part in education committees. Religious representatives should be given no special privileged treatment.
"Unelected church representatives should not have the power to dictate the way schools in Scotland are run. Removing their voting rights is a significant step which will help to prevent them from imposing their religious agenda on Scotland's schools. We're urging other councils to follow suit.
"The Scottish government should also reconsider its position on this issue. Even if councils strip them of voting rights, religious representatives will continue to have undue influence on Scotland's education system. Without legislation in the Scottish parliament schools will continue to defer to religious interests, when the interests of children and taxpayers should come first."
The motion in Perth and Kinross passed by 21 votes to 19. McDade was one of three independents to support the motion, along with 15 SNP councillors, two Conservatives and a Labour councillor.
Fifteen Conservatives and four Liberal Democrats voted against. Some councillors proposed an alternative, wider review of council standing orders, in an apparent attempt to undermine the original motion.
According to a report in The Times in 2017 the Scottish government was considering plans which would have removed religious representatives' power over local education policy.
In 2013 a private member's bill was brought before the Scottish parliament in an attempt to abolish religious representatives' position on education committees.
Last year an active creationist was re-appointed to sit on the education committee at South Lanarkshire Council as a Church of Scotland representative.
Update (30 April 2019): Renfrewshire Council has announced that unelected religious representatives will continue to enjoy voting rights on its education committee, according to The Gazette.
Council leader Iain Nicolson (SNP) has defended the decision to keep the religious appointees. But SNP councillor Will Mylet has urged the council to rethink its stance and said he will ask its convener of education to remove the religious representatives' voting rights as soon as possible.
Image: Perth and Kinross Council logo, via Facebook.
NSS signs major letter against new fully selective faith schools
Posted: Mon, 15 Apr 2019 11:30
Leading public figures and campaigners including the National Secular Society have urged the government not to fund new faith schools which can choose all their children on a religious basis.
A letter published in The Sunday Times said a plan for a new wave of voluntary aided (VA) faith schools in England "fundamentally threatens social cohesion".
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans was among the signatories to the letter, which was coordinated by the charity Humanists UK and campaigners from the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education.
The letter said "all new schools" should be "inclusive and welcoming to all children, irrespective of family background".
"Monocultural schools simply cannot reproduce the benefits that come from learning alongside others holding differing beliefs, all day, every day."
It added that it was "patently unfair" that families from "outside particular religious communities" were placed "at the back of the queue for places".
The letter was signed by two former education ministers, Kim Howells and Jim Knight, and four MPs: Stephen Kinnock, Kerry McCarthy and Anna Turley of Labour and the Greens' Caroline Lucas.
The comedian Stephen Fry, philosopher AC Grayling and scientist Richard Dawkins were also among the signatories.
The Department for Education announced details of proposals for 14 new VA schools last month. VA schools are allowed to select all their children on the basis of their parents' religion and to use a religious test when employing teachers.
At least 13 of the 14 schools are expected to have single-faith intakes. Five of these will be Catholic schools, three Church of England, two Muslim, two Hindu and one Jewish.
The announcement came after the government backtracked on plans to lift a 50% cap on faith-based admissions to new academies last year, amid opposition from the NSS and others.
The NSS's No More Faith Schools campaign is opposing plans to open new faith schools nationally and locally in areas including Cornwall and South Tyneside. The NSS argues that new schools should be secular and inclusive.
Commenting on his decision to sign the letter, Mr Evans said: "The government's unpopular plans to open new fully selective faith schools will exacerbate social segregation and intolerance, normalise discrimination and bigotry and undermine children's freedom of and from religion.
"Taxpayer-funded schools shouldn't cater exclusively to particular religious communities. The government should rethink its plans and ensure new school places are genuinely inclusive for families of all faiths and none."
In December a government impact assessment found the decision to fund new VA schools would disadvantage families and teachers who do not share those schools' religion.
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)
