Reforms announced in the Education Bill, introduced yesterday to parliament, threaten to undermine cohesive community schooling and pave the way for increased religious influence and discrimination in state education, the British Humanist Association has warned.
The Education Bill takes forward the legislative proposals in the Schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, which the BHA criticised for its proposals including to weaken the admissions code, and its failure to propose scrapping the law on collective worship, or proposals to make RE a national curriculum subject.
The Bill contains provisions to make it easier to set up new academies, affects the employment rights of teachers in ‘faith’ academies and reduces the level of scrutiny of the admissions procedures of schools in an area, opening up the possibility that discriminatory admissions rules will go unchecked.
Andrew Copson, Chief Executive at the British Humanist Association commented: ‘The presumption, introduced by the Bill, that all new schools established by local authorities will be academies, will make it easier for religious organisations wishing to start up new schools to do so. As the Bill stands, it threatens to encourage a proliferation of schools that divide communities and discriminate against local people.
‘Action is needed to ensure that the Bill delivers fair access to good quality education. We look forward to working with a wide range of partners and with our supporters in parliament in seeking to have the Bill amended in ways that promote inclusion, equality and to address the religious discrimination that takes place in many state funded ‘faith’ schools.’
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The Education Bill 2011 is available to view on the UK Parliament website: www.parliament.uk
Find out more about the BHA’s work on religion and schools https://humanists.uk/campaigns/religion-and-schools
The British Humanist Association is the national charity representing and supporting the interests of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.