The British Humanist Association (BHA) has welcomed the call for a ban on new faith schools by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).
Teachers voted by a majority at the NASUWT conference in Belfast today to stop any more state-funded faith schools , stating that they were discriminatory and an ‘inappropriate use of taxpayers’ money’.
Andrew Copson, BHA Education Officer, commented, ‘Today’s vote is yet more evidence that teachers overwhelmingly do not want faith schools. Professionals and parents alike are becoming increasingly concerned about the negative effect faith schools have on education and social cohesion and the way they discriminate in their employment and admissions policies.’
The NASUWT vote supports the position on faith schools made earlier this year by both the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).
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For further comment or information, Andrew Copson by email or on 020 7079 3584.
Read the BHA’s paper on religion and schools, A Better Way Forward, here .
The British Humanist Association (BHA) represents and supports the non-religious and campaigns for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief and is the largest organisation in the UK working for a secular society. In education, this means an end to the expansion of faith schools and for the assimilation of those that currently exist into a system of inclusive and accommodating community schools.