Take Action! You can sign the petition on the e-petitions website!
A new e-petition has been launched by the British Humanist Association (BHA) on the Welsh National Assembly’s website calling for the law forcing all schools to hold a ‘broadly Christian’ daily assembly to be repealed. The petition follows the launch earlier this year of a collective worship e-petition on the UK government website calling for a similar change in English schools.
The text of the petition reads:
As it stands, the law requires all schools to hold an act of collective worship every day. Even in schools that aren’t ‘faith’ schools, this must be ‘broadly Christian’ in character. In a society which is increasingly diverse, this is an affront to the rights of young people to express their beliefs freely. Although there is the opportunity to opt out, this is reliant on parental permission and is not respected by all schools. The law is extremely unpopular, with opinion polls showing teachers don’t want it, parents don’t want it, and children don’t want it. As such, it is long past time for the daily act of collective worship to be replaced with inclusive assemblies that add to cohesion and a sense of community within the school. We petition the Government to repeal the requirement for compulsory collective worship in schools and to encourage schools to hold educational assemblies that will include all children, regardless of religion or non-religious belief.
BHA Education Campaigner Richy Thompson commented, ‘Earlier this year we asked our members to contact us with their views on the collective worship law. From parents, pupils and teachers alike we found overwhelming dissatisfaction with the law. Furthermore, recently the BBC Regional Religion Unit published a new poll finding 60% of the general public think the requirement for all state-funded schools to hold a daily act of collective worship should not be enforced, versus just 33% who think that it should be. This is a chance for these grievances to be properly debated and hopefully for the law finally to be changed.’
‘Like with the BHA’s other collective worship e-petition on the UK government website, if this petition receives enough signatures there is a chance that the issue will be debated or looked into by ministers. Due to the devolution of the Welsh education system, our previous petition does not apply to Wales. However, the new petition can be signed by anyone in the UK, not just those living in Wales, and we encourage as many people as possible to do so. We would also be very grateful for anyone who advertises the petition, for example on Facebook or Twitter, to get as much support as possible.’
Notes
For further comment or information, please contact Richy Thompson on 020 7462 4993.
Sign the e-petition, A Call to Abolish collective worship.
Sign the UK Government petition, Abolish collective worship in English schools.
Read more about the BHA’s campaigns work on worship in schools.
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.