Tag: tristram hunt

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Ofsted should be allowed to inspect religious teaching in state faith schools

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary has set out his concerns that ‘Ofsted is not allowed to inspect religious teaching in faith schools‘. The issue of faith schools essentially inspecting themselves when it comes to the content of their religious teaching was discussed when Labour Humanists met with Tristram Hunt MP earlier this year, and this public statement from Dr Hunt is very welcome. What we would like to see is a firm policy proposal from Labour to ensure that religious teaching in faith schools is opened up to the same scrutiny and inspection as all other state schools.

You can listen to the full discussion between Dr Hunt and David Aaronovitch, which was a Progress event on October 28. They discuss various issues relating to faith schools from 21 – 28 minutes.

What’s the issue with RE in faith schools?

There are a number of concerns about what and how RE is taught in state-funded faith schools. The British Humanist Association’s (BHA) education campaigner Richy Thompson blog ‘10 facts about faith schools‘ sets these out. These include:

  • Most don’t have to teach about other religions in Religious Education
  • When they do teach about other religions, they often don’t teach about them properly
  • They don’t have to teach about non-religious people and beliefs
  • Their RE teaching isn’t even inspected by Ofsted. The religious bodies inspect it themselves
  • ‘Faith’ schools do not have to provide much in the way of sex education and can choose to only teach abstinence until marriage

Help the BHA keep campaigning for reform of faith schools.

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Meeting with Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary

Earlier this week, represented by Tom Copley AM, we met with Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt. We were pleased to attend that meeting alongside the British Humanist Association (BHA) and the Accord Coalition, to speak about our shared vision for a high quality and inclusive education and schools system. We had a productive meeting and covered issues from religiously selective admissions in faith schools to the importance of a broad and balanced curriculum about religion and beliefs – including Humanism – in all state-funded schools. We look forward to working with the Labour education team as it sets out what the next Labour Government’s approach to education will be.

Read our submission to Labour on faith schools.

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We write to Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary

We have written to Dr Tristram Hunt, Labour’s new Shadow Secretary of State for Education. In our letter to Dr Hunt we set out our position as relates to education and we also ask for a meeting.

We warmly welcomed Labour’s commitment to making Sex and Relationships Education compulsory in schools but urged that there should be no opt-out for faith schools.

We outlined our concerns about discrimination against, and unequal treatment of, teachers and teaching staff in state-funded faith schools.

We also took the opportunity to send Dr Hunt our submission to Labour’s policy review on faith school admissions, which we made jointly with Tom Copley, London Assembly Member.

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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.