During questions in the House of Lords this afternoon, peers from a range of parties quizzed the Government on its controversial move to ban civil society organisations from formally challenging school admission arrangements where they are not compliant with the School Admissions Code. Raising the issue, Shadow Education Spokesperson Lord Watson expressed his concern at the lack of oversight and enforcement within the admissions system, especially in light of evidence that a large number of schools are failing to comply with the law. Attention was also drawn to the findings of the report published by the British Humanist Association (BHA) and Fair Admissions Campaign (FAC) last year, revealing that almost all religiously selective school in England are breaking the law, with Baronesses Meacher, Barker, and Massey all commenting on the lack of transparency in the system and the seriousness of the violations that many schools have been found to commit.
In addition to the oral questions asked today, almost 60 written questions have been tabled in both Houses of Parliament opposing the Department for Education’s move, and the BHA has once again called on the Government to consider the concerns of peers, MPs, and parents alike before it goes ahead with the proposals.
The ban, which has been proposed essentially in response to the BHA’s and FAC’s report, has been roundly criticised by a range of prominent figures since it was announced last month. Just yesterday Lord Watson wrote that the move was ‘a clear case of shoot the messenger rather than address the problem’, and the Chief Executive of Mumset, Justine Roberts, said that the ban ‘is likely to add to parental dissatisfaction’. Further, Director of the Institute for Community Cohesion Foundation Ted Cantle said it would ‘reduce scrutiny’ in a system already ‘very open to manipulation and abuse’, and one education campaigner also commented in a blog for the Local Schools Network, ‘imagine a world where only the victims of a crime could complain to the police and where witnesses to a crime would be banned from reporting the incident. That’s the world Education Secretary Nicky Morgan wants to create.’
Bizarrely, and despite the continued insistence that they plan to go ahead with the ban, the Government appears to have acknowledged the important role played by organisations in improving the school admissions system for parents. Last month, in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Baroness Meacher, Lord Nash conceded that the overwhelming majority of objections submitted by the BHA and FAC had revealed illegality, and just two weeks ago the Education Secretary wrote to the BHA about the issue, saying ‘I am grateful for the work that you and your colleagues on the Fair Admissions Campaign have put into highlighting examples of non-compliance with the School Admissions Code’. She also stated that she was aware of the support the BHA has provided in the past to parents who have concerns about the admission arrangements of their local schools.
BHA Director of Public Affairs and Policy Pavan Dhaliwal commented, ‘We’re glad that this issue is getting the attention it deserves in Parliament, not just in the form of Lord Watson’s oral question, but also in the form of the 50 parliamentary questions that have been tabled in both Houses so far, by MPs and peers from a range of different parties. Like us, they recognise that an opaque and unaccountable admissions system in which schools choose pupils rather than the other way round is fundamentally a broken one, and they know, as we do, that far from redressing this imbalance, the Government’s proposal will only serve to entrench it. The level of opposition we’re seeing is therefore unsurprising, and we will continue to urge the Government to reconsider so the right of parents and children to fair access at local schools can continue to be defended.’
Notes
For further comment or information, please contact BHA Faith Schools and Education Campaigner Jay Harman on jay@humanists.uk or 020 7324 3078.
Read Lord Watson’s blog on the Government’s proposed changes to the School Admissions Code, ‘Code philosophy’: http://www.labourlords.org.uk/code_philosophy
See the BHA’s previous news item ‘Department for Education acknowledges 87% of objections to school admissions labelled ‘vexatious’ by Education Secretary were upheld by adjudicator’: https://humanists.uk/2016/02/26/department-for-education-acknowledges-87-of-objections-to-school-admissions-labelled-vexatious-by-education-secretary-were-upheld-by-adjudicator/
See the BHA’s previous news item ‘Parliamentarians and wider public denounce Government move to ban BHA from raising concerns about schools admissions’: https://humanists.uk/2016/02/19/parliamentarians-and-wider-public-denounce-government-move-to-ban-bha-from-raising-concerns-about-school-admissions/
Read the BHA’s letter to the Secretary of State: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016-01-28-Letter-from-the-BHA.pdf
Read the Secretary of State’s response: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/Letter-from-Nicky-Morgan-to-Andrew-Copson-19-02-2016.pdf
Read the Department for Education’s press release announcing the proposed ban: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parents-to-get-greater-say-in-the-school-admissions-process
Read the BHA’s previous news item ‘Government moves to ban organisations from exposing law-breaking schools unfairly restricting access to children and parents’: https://humanists.uk/2016/01/25/government-moves-to-ban-organisations-from-exposing-law-breaking-schools-unfairly-restricting-access-to-children-and-parents/
Read the BHA’s comment piece in the Independent ‘Is Nicky Morgan on the side of children or faith organisations’: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/is-nicky-morgan-on-the-side-of-children-or-faith-organisations-a6837811.html
Read the BHA/FAC report ‘An Unholy mess: How virtually all religiously selective schools are breaking the law: https://humanists.uk/2015/10/01/an-unholy-mess-new-report-reveals-near-universal-noncompliance-with-school-admissions-code-among-state-faith-schools-in-england/
Read the FAC’s briefing on the report: http://fairadmissions.org.uk/anunholymess-briefing/
The Fair Admissions Campaign wants all state-funded schools in England and Wales to be open equally to all children, without regard to religion or belief. The Campaign is supported by a wide coalition of individuals and national and local organisations. We hold diverse views on whether or not the state should fund faith schools. But we all believe that faith-based discrimination in access to schools that are funded by the taxpayer is wrong in principle and a cause of religious, ethnic, and socio-economic segregation, all of which are harmful to community cohesion. It is time it stopped.
Supporters of the campaign include the Accord Coalition, the British Humanist Association, Professor Ted Cantle and the iCoCo Foundation, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, the Campaign for State Education, the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, the Christian think tank Ekklesia, the Hindu Academy, the Green Party, the Liberal Democrat Education Association, Liberal Youth, the Local Schools Network, Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign, the Runnymede Trust, the Socialist Educational Association, and the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.