ACTION ON religious schools
We have opposed allowing state schools to discriminate on religious grounds from when it was first allowed in 1944. Since 2002 the government has expanded the number and type of state-funded religious schools (‘faith schools’) in England in particular.
Religious state schools
State-funded religious schools come with a host of problems. They represent over a third of all state-funded schools in the UK. Because there are so many of them and they have all sorts of unfair legal advantages over other schools, it’s sometimes difficult or impossible for non-religious parents (or parents of the ‘wrong’ religion) to attend a local school of their choice.
One major problem is parents are frequently forced to send their children to a faith school against their wishes. Once there, they may be pressured to worship or pray. Frequently, faith schools have religiously slanted curriculums and biased approaches to certain topics. At the same time, they very often discriminate against families on grounds of religion. Sometimes this forces parents to travel further to access schools, at great expense.
Poorer families, ethnic minorities, and the non-religious are all disproportionately let down by an unfair, confusing, and outdated system that is ripe for reform. We’re campaigning for an inclusive education system where children and young people of all backgrounds can learn and play together.
Unregistered schools
We also take action on illegal religious schools. A significant number of unregistered schools are operating through England, many of which are religious. Such settings serve a variety of different religious communities, including Muslim, Jewish, and Christian – all of which, in some respect, tend to be fundamentalist, extreme, or isolationist in their outlook. It is for this reason that leaders in these communities see illegal schools as preferable to registered ones, which face inspection and must meet a variety of minimum standards.
We lead the national campaign for action on unregistered religious schools and work closely with former pupils of such settings.
Faith schools reduce parental choice
In the UK, more than a third of state schools are Christian and more faith schools are still being approved. This leaves some families with little choice but to put their child’s education in the hands of religious organisations whose values and ideals they do not share.
In the UK, more children are made to pray in Christian schools each day than there are adults attending church by choice each week.
As a society, we’re less religious than ever. Yet more religious schools keep opening…
In recent years, successive governments have given preference to faith schools over community schools, leading to a disproportionate rise in their numbers. This doesn’t reflect modern society.
Our aim is to reverse the trend and steadily reduce the proportion of children made to attend religious schools, or experience ‘religious selection’ to get into a local school.
We want all state schools to accept local children and teach a non-biased curriculum that prepares them for life.
53% of people in the UK are non‑religious. 68% of young people say they have no religion.
Religious state schools discriminate
State faith schools can:
- Admit children of a particular faith over children of other or no faith, leading to segregation
- Discriminate against staff or prospective employees on the grounds of their religious beliefs or sexual orientation
- Teach religious education without teaching other religions or or non-religious views like humanism (their syllabus is not inspected by Ofsted)
- Teach relationship and sex education from a purely religious standpoint
We also have concerns about private religious schools, which can do all of the above, as well as teach an unbalanced curriculum. We’ve even seen examples of private faith schools teaching ‘creationism’ as a scientific fact.
69% of Church of England secondary schools have discriminatory admission policies
We’re working hard to represent parents and repair our unfair education system
Recently we have:
- Protected a 50% cap on religious selection in free schools in 2018
- Published extensive reports into the scale of discrimination caused by faith schools
- Reformed the law around religious schools and legally challenged their continuing presence and role
- Launched a whistleblowing site uncovering discrimination and poor practice in faith schools – visit Faith Schoolers Anonymous
- Become a founding member of a broad coalition working for reform of state funded schools to make them more inclusive in matters of religion or belief
Research has found that faith school admissions most frequently discriminate against:
- Non-religious families
- Ethnic minorities
- Religious minorities
- Poorer families
- Children previously in care
Reports on faith school discrimination
In recent years we’ve published a number of reports bringing to light the extent and impact of faith school admissions on children and families, including vulnerable children such as those in care. You can download these reports below.
Guides for parents
If you’re a parent, you might benefit from reading one of our guides to religion in schools.
