An upcoming study will show that, a decade on from the race riots, Oldham schools have made little progress in reducing ethnic segregation, and that ‘faith’ schools present a large barrier to integration.
The Oldham riots peaked ten years ago today, and the Cantle report, the Home Office inquiry into its causes that was published seven months later, found that ‘many communities operate on the basis of a series of parallel lives’ – and that ‘faith’ schools had a big role to play in this. The report proposed that all ‘faith’ schools should give a minimum of 25% of their places to pupils of other faiths in order to increase diversity within the town’s schools.
Simultaneously the Ritchie report, commissioned by the Government, borough and local police authority concluded that ‘in our view it is desirable in principle that as many schools as possible, should have mixed intake so that children growing up can learn one another’s customs and cultural backgrounds and accept that stereotypes and racism are unacceptable.’
The Cantle report’s proposal was rejected by Government ministers, and in an article ahead of publication of new research, academics from the University of Bristol have found that very little has changed since: ‘More than one third of primary schools and over 40% of secondary schools in Oldham are Roman Catholic or Church of England faith schools including demonstrable practice of a faith among their admissions criteria. If such practices have cultural and ethnic underpinnings – which they do – then including them among the admissions criteria is unlikely to aid mixing within schools.’
British Humanist Association Faith Schools Campaigns Officer Richy Thompson commented, ‘It is a damning indictment of ‘faith’ schools that we now have three separate reports pointing to them as a key factor for the division in Oldham that ultimately led to violence.
‘The only way really to improve community cohesion is to replace ‘faith’ schools with community schools, that aim to serve the whole of the town’s population, as opposed to fuelling disharmony and division through segregation based on religious belief. This way, children can form friendships with children from all backgrounds found within the community.’
Notes
For further comment or information, contact Richy Thompson on 020 7462 4993.
Read more about the BHA’s work on ‘faith’ schools.
Read the Cantle Report ‘Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team’, December 2001
Read the Ritchie Report ‘Oldham Independent Review’, December 2001
Read the University of Bristol article ‘Oldham lives: still parallel or converging?’
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.