Together with the Accord coalition, the BHA held its third and final meeting on ‘faith’ schools for the conference season today. Delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham listened to an expert panel of speakers, and made their own contributions, to the discussion of ‘Should there be faith in faith schools?’
Education expert John Bangs, former head of education of the NUT, dismissed the notion that ‘faith’ schools were automatically better schools. He spoke of the need to ensure fair admissions policies and said that independent ‘faith’ schools were a particular cause for concern.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain focused on the impact that discriminatory admissions policies and instructional RE have on community cohesion. Rabbi Romain described his vision of a school system in which children from all religious and cultural backgrounds can learn with and from each other.
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson elaborated on the rights of teachers and other staff in ‘faith’ schools, describing the discriminatory employment policies that many religious schools operate as well as the discrimination practised in admissions.
A lively debate followed, with many audience members expressing scepticism about the coalition government’s education reforms and the number of religious groups that have expressed an interest in running their own ‘free schools’. The question of how to put the issue of ‘faith’ schools on the Conservative party’s agenda was also raised, with both speakers and audience agreeing that the most effective route was through grassroots Conservative activists such as those in the Conservative Humanist Association.
We ‘tweeted’ updates during the meeting and will continue to do so throughout our time and activities at the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative conferences. Follow us @BHANews.