6th Jan 12
Secular activists call faith school expansion programme ‘shameful’
by Sally Davies
Ye who have little faith: secular activists in faith school clash
Ye who have little faith: secular activists in faith school clash
Secular activists have chastised reports that UK ministers are considering allowing the Church of England to take easier control of state-financed schools. Michael Gove, the UK’s education secretary, has been contacted by the British Humanist Association (BHA), who has called the plans “the single most threatening development” in the domain of religious schools since their 2001 expansion.
The denunciation comes after a report revealing the government’s possible plans to make it easier for community schools to avoid local authority command and become the Anglican church-supported academies. Presently, there must be separate discussions that deal with faith and academic status, but the government is seeking to combine these in one single step, says the Times Educational Supplement.
The church was also seeking to build looser partnerships with academies that did not have a faith designation, reported the TES. Andrew Copson, who is chief executive at the BHA, stated that if the government and the church realise their ambitions, the church would grow into the single biggest provider of schooling, completely funded by the state. This may allow a majority of schools to start discriminating religiously in admissions, be religiously prejudice in employment, and teach curricula with a Christian bias across the board.
Copson called it a potentially enormous takeover, calling it predictable that a ‘national’ church would see its sole hope for survival as a government-funded service provider – especially when it is only attended each month by fewer than 5 per cent of the population, and to which 80 per cent of people do not actually consider themselves a member. He said it was “shameful” that the state, which provides inclusive schools for all, would facilitate this drive with public money.
The BHA worries that the church may become an attractive backer of academies that have departed from the local authority but are seeking the support of a wider organisation. The group urged parliament ministers to maintain the strictness of existing rules for any non-religious school seeking to convert to a parochial school.
A Church of England spokesman said that, as local authorities lose their influence and power, there is a strong interest from non-parochial schools to become part of the religious school family. The diocesan boards of education, he said, are not driving this process, but rather they are reacting to it. He added that dioceses already offer a vital infrastructure with which local schools may have something in common, therefore becoming a good place for them to seek a ‘safe haven’.
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