Single Faith Schools - Don't Mix Religion and School

Schools would offer faith-based instruction, prayer facilities and a choice of religious holidays under a plan developed by the country's biggest teaching union.

Head teachers would bring in imams, rabbis and priests to instruct religious pupils as part of the curriculum in an attempt to satisfy parental demand for religion in schools and prevent the establishment of more single-faith schools.

The National Union of Teachers proposals represent an attempt to rival faith schools. All schools should become practicing multi-faith institutions, and faith schools should be stripped of their powers to control their own admissions and select pupils according to their faith, according to proposals in the union's annual report, backed at its conference in Manchester yesterday. The daily act of "mainly" Christian worship required of all schools by law should be liberalized to include any religion, the union says.

The general secretary of the NUT, Steve Sinnott, said the plan represented "more than simply religious education - this is religious instruction.

"I believe that there will be real benefits to all our communities and youngsters if we could find space within schools for pupils who are Roman Catholics, Anglican, Methodist, Jewish, Sikh and Muslim to have more religious instruction. You could have imams coming in, you could have the local rabbi coming in and the local Roman Catholic priest."

Schools should make "reasonable accommodations" of children's faith, including providing private prayer space, recognizing religious holidays and being flexible on school uniform, for instance by allowing children to wear religious jewelery or head scarves. The proposals oppose admissions criteria which "either privilege or discriminate against children on the basis of the beliefs, motivations or practices of their parents".

The NUT plans follow concern about research which suggests that faith schools have fueled social, ethnic and religious segregation between schools. The government this month accused faith schools of flouting admissions laws.

But the plan angered secularists. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: "It's outrageous that a teaching union should be proposing to introduce religious instruction in schools. If parents feel that strongly about religious instruction it should happen in the home or place of worship.

"Two-thirds of children in secondary schools say they are not religious - what happens to them?"

A spokesman for the Church of England said: "Religious instruction belongs with the religious institutions, the churches, the mosques, the temples. It is for religions to teach their faith to people; it is for schools to teach about religion."

Alex Goldberg, director of community issues at the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the proposal would not satisfy Jewish parents who wanted to send their child to a Jewish faith school, but it could work in areas where Jewish schools are inaccessible.

Tahir Alam, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Some parents will be satisfied with better provision of religious instruction in the state sector. Others would still want a faith school, whether it's state or independent."

He also welcomed the document's suggestion that schools should allow "flexible arrangements around school uniform to allow religious requirements".

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "This plan could compound the problem if the people coming into schools were offering extreme views. How would you have any control over what was being taught in your school?

"I think the answer lies more in the admissions system and using the admissions code to level the playing field and stop schools selecting. But you can't force religious schools out of the system - they've been part of it since 1839."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Parents should be able to choose the type of education they want for their children, and many parents want a faith-based education. There is no policy to increase the number of faith schools - it is up to local communities to decide the kind of schools they want."

From EducationGuardian.co.uk