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Discriminatory faith schools – update

Selective faith schools and One Nation Labour

A big concern for Labour Humanists is the near-silence from the Labour Party on the issue of permitting state-funded faith schools to discriminate in their admissions policies. Labour Humanists’ chair Naomi Phillips blogged about this on LabourList.org, and argued that support for selective religious schools went against One Nation Labour principles.

It is incoherent that on the one hand a Party which has equality at its heart, which has openly fought against academic and class selection by schools can on the other support, endorse, and enshrine in law the ‘right’ for faith schools to discriminate in their admissions.

We want the issue of discriminatory faith schools to be properly considered by Labour right across the board. If those who support inclusive education in all state-funded schools want to see change and Labour taking the lead against selective school admissions, then we need to get our voices heard in the Party now.

Judicial review of discriminatory faith schools

A legal challenge against approval of new schools because of religious discrimination, heard in the High Court last week, highlighted the growing problem of the proliferation of discriminatory faith schools. Regrettably, that judicial review taken by the British Humanist Association (BHA) and the Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign (RISC) which challenged the decision by the Tory-run Richmond-upon-Thames Council to open two state-funded Catholic schools with highly discriminatory admissions policies was lost. More details about the case and the judgement.

Many oppose selection by state-funded faith schools

The negative impact on social cohesion, caused by dividing up more and more children along religious, class, and often ethnic lines through many faith schools operating highly selective admissions criteria, is far from being solely a humanist concern. A new survey last week had a clear majority of respondents agreeing that ‘state funded schools should not be allowed to select or discriminate against prospective pupils on religious grounds in their admissions policy’. The survey was commissioned by the Accord Coalition, which itself brings together religious groups, humanists, teachers, trade unionists, educationalists and civil rights activists, to campaign for truly inclusive education in the state school sector.

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