The Government is consulting on allowing pupils over the age of 16 to excuse themselves from the daily act of collective worship in maintained schools (including ‘faith schools’). The British Humanist Association (BHA) has argued that competent pupils should be able to exercise for themselves any rights that can be exercised by parents.
In its submission today to the Department for Education and Skills, the BHA called for compulsory worship to be replaced with inclusive assemblies and for a broad and balanced national curriculum subject of beliefs and values education to replace Religious Education.
On the question of the right to excuse oneself from RE and collective worship, the BHA maintained that young people should be given the right to choose for themselves in matters of religion. Whereas the current law only provides for parents to have the right to withdraw their children from RE or worship, children are just as entitled to the human right of freedom of religion and belief as adults and, if they are capable of making an info rmed choice, should be allowed to exercise that right.
Andrew Copson, responsible for education at the BHA said, ‘The UK has signed up to both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights. Under these agreements, children have the right to freedom of religion and belief and they have the right, in line with their evolving capacities, to make decisions about matters which affect them. A law that does not even allow eighteen year olds to make their own decisions in relation to a matter as fundamental as belief and conscience must be reformed.’
You can read the BHA’s submission to the DfES here
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For more info rmation and comment, contact Andrew by email or by telephone on 020 7079 3584 or 07855 380633
The British Humanist Association has been campaigning for reform of the law on collective worship, and published a widely-regarded policy paper in 2001 which has been revised and reissued this year. You can read it and about it here
You can read more about the BHA’s policy on worship and school assemblies here