Tag: faith school

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Now is the time for Labour properly to support teachers

If Labour is serious about supporting teachers and improving quality in classrooms, it must have a change in policy to say that no state-funded school is allowed to place a religious requirement on any teaching or non-teaching job. That is the key message set out in an article published on LabourList, Labour’s biggest independent grassroots e-network.

All types of faith schools (around a third of state-funded schools), from those under Local Authority control to Academies and Free Schools, have the ability to place religious requirements on teaching positions. This means in practice that many state schools are able to hire, fire and promote (or refuse to promote) teachers simply on the basis of their personal beliefs and behaviour outside of school, no matter how well qualified they are. We think this is totally wrong.

Labour’s values should be firmly in favour of equality and inclusion. We are working within the Party and seeking to influence policy at this crucial time to ensure that under the next Labour Government, no teacher’s job prospects could be determined by whether she believes in god or not.

Join us today and help to get our position heard.

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Tories and the Church speak out in support of discriminatory faith schools

Just days after a Tory Minister confirmed the Government’s commitment to expanding the number of state-funded faith schools, the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a statement in support of allowing schools to discriminate in their admissions including on religious grounds.

Despite a front page interview in The Times newspaper today where he seemed to support inclusive admissions to faith schools, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has subsequently said: ‘I fully support the current policy for schools to set their own admissions criteria, including the criterion of faith. Nothing in my wider comments to The Times on this subject should be seen as “revealing” any changes nor dissenting from current policy.’ In practice, the Church of England’s policy allows state-funded faith schools to discriminate against children and families on grounds of religion.

Earlier this week, in a speech at Cambridge University, the Tory Minister for Faith, Baroness Warsi, spoke out against secularism and stated, ‘We didn’t just get behind faith schools, we created more. And of our flagship free schools, one in four are faith-based: Sikh, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Christian, Muslim and Hindu.’

All types of state-funded schools with a religious character are permitted to select in their admissions by discriminating on religious grounds, including the faith Academies and Free Schools. Evidence shows that schools selecting pupils on the basis of the professed faith of the parents are segregating children and young people along religious, socio-economic, cultural, and even ethnic lines.

Naomi Phillips, Chair of Labour Humanists said, ‘Both the Tory-led Government and the Church of England are promoting religious privilege and making an assault on social cohesion and equality through their policies to increase the number of faith schools and to allow them to discriminate in their admissions on religious grounds.

‘Dividing up more and more young people along religious and class lines through selection by the ever-expanding faith schools sector cannot be good for society. It’s time for Labour to take the lead and stand up for a truly inclusive school system.’

Notes

Contact Naomi Phillips at chair@labourhumanists.org.uk

Read Labour Humanists’ submission to Labour’s policy review on faith school admissions

Read the Fair Admissions Campaign’s response to Justin Welby’s statement

Read BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson’s comment

Tories collude to hand secular schools over to the Church

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Dangers of religious Free Schools

There has been much in the news about the Tory-led Government’s Free School programme recently – with a particular focus on the failings of the Al-Madinah Islamic school in Derbyshire. There have been reports particularly of gender discrimination and unequal treatment of women and girls in the school, including from teachers who said they were forced to wear the hijab.

The report from an emergency Ofsted inspection found that the school was ‘dysfunctional’ and that it is ‘a school which has been set up and run by representatives of the community with limited knowledge and experience.’

Relating to the widespread failings of Al-Madinah school, Labour’s recently appointed Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt described the Government’s Free School programme as ‘a dangerous ideological experiment’. He also wrote to Education Secretary Michael Gove with concerns including those about religious discrimination and unequal treatment of women and girls.

We welcome Dr Hunt’s efforts to expose and tackle problems at Al-Madinah and other Free Schools. We would like Labour to go further to acknowledge and seek to tackle the specific concerns with religious Free Schools.

The Government’s Free Schools are largely unregulated and the Coalition Education Ministers have also dropped a number of checks which had been part of the vetting procedure for new school applications. The door is open to groups even with extreme religious views to apply and to get state-funding to run schools.

Unlike other Free Schools, those with a religious character do not have to have inclusive admissions and are permitted to select up to 50% of spaces based on religion – excluding and discriminating against children and families with no religion or the ‘wrong’ religion.

We also have serious concerns about the curriculum taught in faith Free Schools, which could be heavily religiously biased. They can opt out of the National Curriculum and can focus teaching on religious instruction. There are risks that religious ideology and dogma – including that which is gender discriminatory or homophobic – could be prioritised by the schools over education.

It is our firm position that state-funded schools should be inclusive and not be allowed to discriminate in admissions or employment on religious grounds. The rights of children and young people to a broad and balanced education whichever school they attend should be paramount.