The Independent has today reported that many of the applications for new ‘Free Schools’ have failed to pass the first stages of approval. Free Schools are schools which can be set up and run by independent groups of parents, religious groups or the local community, but will receive their funding directly from the government. The BHA is concerned by the possibility that new Free Schools can have a religious character – become ‘faith’ Free Schools – and be free from many of the regulations and accountability demanded of community schools, or even Free Schools which do not have a religious character.
The schools which have been turned down will have to re-apply under ‘stricter criteria’ if they want to see their proposals go through. The Independent reports that Downing Street sources have seen the 280 rejected applications as an embarrassing failure for government’s Free School programme, as it is clear that many applications for new Free Schools were not submitted to fill the gap left by low performance schools, as was intended by the programme.
The Department for Education has published a list of the schools that have passed the initial stages; either approved to move on to the ‘business case and plan’ stage, or who have already approved business cases, or who have signed funding agreements with the Secretary of State. Of the combined list of forty schools, eleven are ‘faith-based’, or have a stated religious ethos.
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘Although many applications to set up religious Free Schools have been rejected, they still represent a quarter of those which have made it through to the final stages. Religious Free Schools will be able to discriminate widely in employment, admissions and have almost total control over what is taught in the school day, and this is despite receiving 100% of funding from the state. We oppose any religious Free School from being established but until such time there should, at a minimum, be transparent criteria in the application processes which rule out any school which is not inclusive or which seeks to use the school as a vehicle to promote religion.’
An ICM poll commissioned by the BHA last year showed that over two thirds of people are concerned that religious Academy schools will use public money to promote religion. Read the full news item for more details of the poll.
Notes
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf 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.