You can donate today at http://justgiving.com/nofaithschools
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today launched its annual fundraising drive in order to raise the salary of its ‘faith’ schools campaigner for another year. The BHA employs the only dedicated campaigner against ‘faith’ schools, Richy Thompson, and the latest appeal has been launched with a letter from Alom Shaha, physics teacher and author of The Young Atheist’s Handbook.
Some of the successes of the BHA’s education campaigns this past year include:
- Working hard to help launch the Fair Admissions Campaign, a new, widely supported joint campaign that opens up all state-funded schools to all children, without regard to religion. Successes include new research revealing how socio-economically selective ‘faith’ schools are, including the worst offenders, and getting the Schools Adjudicator to order the London Oratory School to rewrite its admissions criteria – Richy wrote our submissions.
- Forcing the Government to publish a list of all groups applying to set up Free Schools, after defeating it at the Information Tribunal – Richy again wrote our successful submissions.
- Securing evolution on the new primary national curriculum for the first time and as required to be taught in Free Schools through our ‘Teach evolution, not creationism’ campaign.
- Identifying and highlighting schools which continue to have section 28-like sex and relationships education policies, causing the UK and Welsh Governments to launch investigations.
- Responding to a staggering fourteen curriculum consultations since last summer, including the national curriculum review, the PSHE Review, the RE subject review, the Labour Party’s review of the curriculum and other consultations on qualifications reform. Topics covered include evolution, creationism, sex and relationships education, the scientific method, religious education, collective worship and history.
- Getting extensive media coverage including getting the BHA front page coverage on The Independent and i as well as on the Today and Sunday programmes and BHA campaigns covered on Daily Politics and Question Time.
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘This past year has seen a number of high profile victories for the BHA’s education campaigns, and we are very pleased to have a campaigner like Richy working on our behalf. But the proportion of religious schools in the state system continues to rise, with over thirty new “faith” schools opening this month alone. We must be able to continue our efforts, and so we ask you to donate to our fundraising campaign.’
In his letter, Mr Shaha writes, ‘I am grateful that, as a child, I attended a school where I met fellow students from a wide range of faith backgrounds, allowing me to appreciate the diversity of beliefs out there and, more importantly, to think critically about religion and come to my own conclusions. As an educator, I think it is imperative that all students have the same opportunities and that children are not segregated from each other on the basis of their parents’ faiths. This is what the BHA’s campaigns set out to achieve.
‘One of the most important things for all of us is to improve society for our children. That must start with education, and if our schools do not reflect the society we want, then we are in serious trouble. What I want is for every young person to grow up getting to know and love those of other religions and of none, learning about and with one another with equal life prospects not in any way dictated by their parents’ beliefs. We can only achieve this vision by supporting the efforts of Richy and the BHA. I hope you, like me, think it’s important that the successes I’ve outlined continue into 2014. Please therefore donate generously at http://justgiving.com/nofaithschools.’
Notes
For further comment or information, please contact Andrew Copson on 020 3675 0959.
Donations will be used to ensure we can employ our dedicated campaigns officer for another year and fund his campaigning activities. Any money donated beyond our target will be spent on BHA education campaigns.
Read Alom’s letter: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=f506ec535c3e750b66180af13&id=4265338364&e=[UNIQID]
Read more about the BHA’s campaigns work on schools and education.
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.