The BHA has responded today to a report by researchers at LSE on the complexity of school admissions. The paper, which examined the admissions policies of secondary schools in England, found that the criteria used by voluntary aided religious schools can be complex and off-putting for parents.
Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, “This research has comprehensively analysed the admissions criteria of schools in Britain and found that those used by voluntary aided schools can be long and confusing. These largely religious schools also use ‘supplementary information forms’ to gather details of religious commitment. These forms were frequently found to use open ended questions that could be used to ‘select out’ less educated parents.
The paper suggests that improvements to the current system could be made by simplifying the admissions criteria used by schools and giving responsibility for admissions to an independent body, instead of the governors. Those would be positive steps, but we would still be left with a situation in which faith schools could discriminate against students as well as staff according to their private beliefs. A modern education system should be based on equality—surely this new evidence shows that now is the time for the Government to support genuinely inclusive schools.”
The full research report can be found here: http://www.risetrust.org.uk/secondary.html
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For comment or information, contact Andrew Copson on 020 7079 3584 or 020 3675 0959.
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious, campaigning 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.