Education in Good Faith

What do you do if your only local catchment area Primary School is a Faith school and you don't practice that faith or denomination? The education Act 1944 states that if admission applications out number places in a faith school, places can be determined by whether the child or the child's parents practice the faith followed by the school. What happens to a child from a non-religious family who has applied to an overburdened faith school, because that's the only one their parents can take them to? That child will be forced to go to a school outside of the catchment area and a child of the correct faith following family who have the ability to get to a more distant school gets a place. Children are legally required to be attending full-time education from the age of 5 years. If a 5 year old cannot get into a faith school, cannot travel to a more distant school and their parents cannot home school as they work full time, the parents will be prosecuted for educational negligence. The rejecting school takes no responsibility and are not obliged to take the more unfortunate if they do not practice the faith of that school.

Only 7.4% adults in England go to church on an average Sunday (Religious Trends, 2002-2003) and yet a third of all schools are faith schools with a quarter of children in education in attendance. A report of the Education and Skills Select Committee in May 2003, based on evidence from numerous experts, stated: “In practice parents have found that the reality of school diversity and choice can act to limit rather than expand their options for their children’s education.” And in 2005, the Select Committee found that: ”In oversubscribed schools, the satisfaction of one person’s choice necessarily denies that of another.” A plethora of different kinds of school – specialist, trust, faith-based (some of them specialist), and academies (some of them faith-based) – will not necessarily increase choice or raise standards. In 2005 96% of New Statesman readers thought that Tony Blair should end his support for faith schools. Religious schools are specifically exempt from the equality law which says that no one should be discriminated against because of their religion – allowing them, in some circumstances, to give preference to children (and staff) from the relevant faith.

What of celebrations and holidays that have their roots in religions that differ from that of a faith school's? Hallowe'en, for example, is the chosen date where the veil between the living and the dead is deemed its weakest by Pagans. Samhain is a feast of the dead celebrated between sunset on the 31st October through to sunset on 1st November. Then follows the "Time Which is No Time" culminating in the Yule feast, also known to Christians as Christmas day. In a Christian faith school it isn't unheard of for pupils to be told not to mention Hallowe'en. This is a very publicly celebrated commercial holiday. It is in contradiction to article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 10 of the UN Human Rights Convention to do with freedom of speech and expression. Is it acceptable for a Christian child in a non-Christian faith school to mention Christian holidays? It should be acceptable for children of all ethnic backgrounds to discuss their holidays in any school, especially if the only school they are practically able to attend is a faith school that isn't of their choice.


 

For a look at how faith schools can affect some children not of the school's faith read this blog post How My Children Lost Their Faith