FAITH SCHOOLS
FAITH SCHOOLS
ALLOW A REAL DEBATE ON THE FUTURE OF FAITH SCHOOLS
Martin Powell-Davies (Lewisham NUT)
The City of Leicester motion on faith schools allows NUT Conference to return to the debate begun two years ago in Torquay.
Given the range of views, and the understandable concern of teachers and communities of various faiths that their beliefs might be under attack, it is right that the Union considers its policy carefully. However, those fears cannot be used as an excuse to prevent real debate about the way forward.
Unfortunately, when I attended the Union’s Consultative Conference on Faith Schools in November, I was one of a number of delegates to be surprised that the Union’s Interim Position paper argued that “there was a strong case for new [faith] schools to be established”. This was a position that had been defeated at the 2006 Conference.
While trade unionists must fully defend the right of every individual to practise their religion, it is a false logic to equate this with supporting the setting-up of separate schools, for example for the Muslim community. As one of the later platform speakers pointed out, such a step actually risks allowing the often unrepresentative and reactionary religious leadership of minority communities to control young people’s education. It is the same kind of danger that arises from allowing fundamentalist Christians to sponsor Academies and peddle ‘intelligent design’.
The trade union movement has to strongly warn against the dangers of faith schools segregating and dividing working-class communities. In contrast, multi-faith, comprehensive education, while insufficient on its own to overcome all the problems of society as a whole, does enable youth to accept and recognise differences of faith and race, fostering a unity that will be built on in the wider community beyond the school gate.
But what about existing faith schools? Given the history of education in Britain, where Government-funded voluntary-aided schools have become a firmly established fact, any suggestion that the Union might support a “secular” education system as a “long term aim”, as the City of Leicester motion suggests, is bound to be controversial. However, it is one that historically the trade union movement have rightly supported.
We must fiercely defend the right to religious freedom, without in any way trying to belittle people of faith as some ‘secularists’ can do. However, we must equally oppose any attempt to impose a particular religious outlook on children. That’s why we should indeed argue for a secular education system.
This is an argument that would need to be won in local communities, including faith communities, convincing parents of the benefits of a secular comprehensive system, teaching a range of religious and non-religious views within the curriculum.
The debate will undoubtedly continue. But to let it happen, Socialist Party Teachers will be supporting the City of Leicester’s call to widen the remit of the NUT Working Party to include proposals for the integration of faith schools into a secular education system.
No to Academies. No to Selection.
All pupils to study a curriculum that includes a range of religious and non-religious views as part of a wider humanities curriculum that encourages solidarity across the globe.
Full freedom to practise religion but not to impose any particular religious outlook on young people in school.
Encourage all faith schools to be part of a secular comprehensive system.
ALLOW A REAL DEBATE ON THE FUTURE OF FAITH SCHOOLS
Martin Powell-Davies (Lewisham NUT)
The City of Leicester motion on faith schools allows NUT Conference to return to the debate begun two years ago in Torquay.
Given the range of views, and the understandable concern of teachers and communities of various faiths that their beliefs might be under attack, it is right that the Union considers its policy carefully. However, those fears cannot be used as an excuse to prevent real debate about the way forward.
Unfortunately, when I attended the Union’s Consultative Conference on Faith Schools in November, I was one of a number of delegates to be surprised that the Union’s Interim Position paper argued that “there was a strong case for new [faith] schools to be established”. This was a position that had been defeated at the 2006 Conference.
While trade unionists must fully defend the right of every individual to practise their religion, it is a false logic to equate this with supporting the setting-up of separate schools, for example for the Muslim community. As one of the later platform speakers pointed out, such a step actually risks allowing the often unrepresentative and reactionary religious leadership of minority communities to control young people’s education. It is the same kind of danger that arises from allowing fundamentalist Christians to sponsor Academies and peddle ‘intelligent design’.
The trade union movement has to strongly warn against the dangers of faith schools segregating and dividing working-class communities. In contrast, multi-faith, comprehensive education, while insufficient on its own to overcome all the problems of society as a whole, does enable youth to accept and recognise differences of faith and race, fostering a unity that will be built on in the wider community beyond the school gate.
But what about existing faith schools? Given the history of education in Britain, where Government-funded voluntary-aided schools have become a firmly established fact, any suggestion that the Union might support a “secular” education system as a “long term aim”, as the City of Leicester motion suggests, is bound to be controversial. However, it is one that historically the trade union movement have rightly supported.
We must fiercely defend the right to religious freedom, without in any way trying to belittle people of faith as some ‘secularists’ can do. However, we must equally oppose any attempt to impose a particular religious outlook on children. That’s why we should indeed argue for a secular education system.
This is an argument that would need to be won in local communities, including faith communities, convincing parents of the benefits of a secular comprehensive system, teaching a range of religious and non-religious views within the curriculum.
The debate will undoubtedly continue. But to let it happen, Socialist Party Teachers will be supporting the City of Leicester’s call to widen the remit of the NUT Working Party to include proposals for the integration of faith schools into a secular education system.
No to Academies. No to Selection.
All pupils to study a curriculum that includes a range of religious and non-religious views as part of a wider humanities curriculum that encourages solidarity across the globe.
Full freedom to practise religion but not to impose any particular religious outlook on young people in school.
Encourage all faith schools to be part of a secular comprehensive system.
posted by classroom teacher at
20:31
1 Comments:
The union has been misrepresented in the press (which is hardly news). There was no debate at conference and yet the Guardian gave the impression we had voted for Religious Instruction by faith groups in schools and the Church of England was disagreeing with us and saying Religious Education was one thing but Instruction should take place in the home or church.
That is why we need a proper debate. For my money we need a secular education system precisely to protect the rights of religious minorities.
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