Secular Education Forum

The Secular Education Forum (SEF) provides expert and professional advice and opinion to the National Secular Society (NSS) on issues related to education and provides a forum for anyone with expertise in the intersection of education and secularism.

The SEF's main objective is to advocate the value of secularism/religious neutrality as a professional standard in education. The SEF welcomes supporters of all faiths and none. It provides expert support for the NSS working towards a secular education system free from religious privilege, proselytization, partisanship or discrimination.

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Education blogs and commentary

A selection of blogs and comment pieces on education and secularism. For education news from the NSS, please click here.

Time to follow Northern Ireland in ending religious discrimination against teachers

Time to follow Northern Ireland in ending religious discrimination against teachers

Posted: Tue, 12th Apr 2022

After ending a blanket exemption from equality laws, Northern Ireland will outlaw religious discrimination against teachers. Ella Sen examines the situation across other UK nations and urges them to follow suit.

Religious discrimination against teachers in Northern Ireland is slowly coming to an end. By 2024, the Fair Employment (School Teachers) Bill will remove the blanket exemption from the Fair Employment and Treatment Order 1998 (FETO) allowing schools to select teachers according to religion.

The situation is still far from perfect. Other structural issues will remain, including a requirement for a certificate in Catholic education in many schools, making it harder for some teachers to work in schools outside their community.

Nevertheless, the end to the FETO exemption will help pave the way for greater integration in the nine in ten schools currently segregated according to religion. It will give teachers across NI greater freedom in where they work without being held back by their background or beliefs.

And in a surprising twist, the reform is set to give more protection to teachers from religious discrimination than anywhere else in the UK.

In England and Wales, the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 allows faith schools to apply a religious test when appointing, remunerating, retaining or and promoting certain 'reserved teachers' or in disciplining them for conduct that is "incompatible with the precepts… of the (school's) religion".

'Reserved teachers' can include one fifth of teaching staff, including the headteacher in voluntary controlled faith schools (mostly Church of England) and all teachers in voluntary aided faith schools (mostly Catholic, some CofE and other minority faiths). The situation in academies and free schools with a religious character will depend on their funding agreement.

The ability of faith schools to religiously discriminate against teachers is enabled by a number of exemptions in the Equality Act 2010. Without these exemptions, such discrimination would be unlawful.

The legality of such discrimination can even take experienced and qualified teachers by surprise. Many cannot believe how our society can possibly permit certain public servants to be hired over others because of their religion.

Research in 2019 by Teacher Tapp found that while schools of all types rely on nonreligious teachers, these teachers are significantly underrepresented in faith schools. The exclusionary policies and ethos of faith schools may explain why 75% of nonreligious teachers would not like to switch to a faith school. Though religious and nonreligious teachers are both very comfortable discussing religion and belief issues in non-faith schools, nonreligious teachers in faith schools are significantly less comfortable – perhaps an impact of knowing they could be legally disciplined for the 'wrong' views.

The situation is similar in Scotland. Almost all denominational (faith) schools in Scotland are Catholic. The process of applying to teach usually requires a Catholic Teaching Certificate. Applicants also need to submit forms confirming their commitment to "supporting and developing the ethos of Catholic education", with a religious reference, for approval by the local bishop.

A teacher's religious affiliation has no relevance to teaching English, maths or any other subject. Yet it causes significant barriers for the 58% of Scots who are nonreligious. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 should be amended to end such discrimination.

Enabling this form of discrimination in Catholic schools can lead to absurd scenarios. In 2019 St Martin's RC Primary School only allowed non-Catholics to apply for its headteacher position after three unsuccessful attempts to recruit a specifically Catholic headteacher. And even then, they re-dubbed the role as 'leader of learning' – a role carrying the same responsibilities as a headteacher but with a less prestigious title.

Ultimately, organising schools around an exclusive religious ethos is always going to make it difficult for some teachers to work there, especially as more and more individuals identify as nonreligious. There should be no hierarchy of teaching opportunities based on individuals' religious or nonreligious beliefs.

And the progressive reforms taking place in NI should prompt us to challenge the archaic and discriminatory teacher employment laws in the rest of the UK.

We will be discussing many of these issues in our upcoming (21 May 2022) conference Towards inclusive education in Northern Ireland with reformers, activists, politicians and academics.

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Image: 14995841 from Pixabay

CofE plans to increase influence in post-16 education smack of hubris

CofE plans to increase influence in post-16 education smack of hubris

Posted: Thu, 7th Apr 2022

The Church of England's emerging plans to expand their role in sixth form and further education colleges, accompanied by empire building and evangelism, may undermine the secularity and inclusivity of this sector, argues Alastair Lichten.

The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill has attracted little media attention. Compared with other wide ranging government proposals that could increase religious control of education, the bill has been seen more as a technical tidying up exercise. Those opposed to any religious discrimination, privilege or control of state education have traditionally had few worries about the further education (FE) sector.

The bill introduces the ability for the small number of faith-based sixth form colleges to convert into to 16-19 academies, and join faith-based multi-academy trusts. However, we grew more concerned when it emerged that the government's "main success indicators" includes: "…in future faith bodies applying to establish (new) 16-19 academies".

This, coupled with our concerns over the Church of England's (CofE) efforts to expand its influence over the wider FE sector, led us to dig deeper into their lobbying and meetings with the Department for Education surrounding the bill.

The CofE acknowledges that it has little to no experience in the FE sector but sees it as an important area of evangelism to "build a younger and more diverse church" and "engage with a missing generation".

We have uncovered the CofE's "Action Plan for FE Partnerships following a roundtable meeting with the Secretary of State for Education and the Archbishop of York". This provides new insight into the Church's hoped-for "market warming" process.

Chaplaincy

The first of the CofE's two key aims is to "reimagine chaplaincy provision" across FE, where there currently remain "only a handful of full-time college chaplains". FE and sixth form colleges already have a cadre of professionally-qualified and committed staff who work diligently to enhance the welfare and wellbeing of students of all backgrounds, abilities and aspirations, and of all faiths or none.

Religious organisations are to be commended for providing spiritual support to college pupils who request it. Secular welfare professionals in FE require a high degree of cultural literacy and should always be prepared to make referrals in the very rare cases where pupils request religion-specific support. But for the CofE, waiting for young people to voluntarily come to them is a losing game.

Employing unqualified chaplains whose first loyalty is towards their theology diverts funds from, and creates potential for conflict with, the open and inclusive support provided by professional welfare services. The recent case of a chaplain sacked by Trent College in Nottingham for putting personal belief above the school's open policy on diversity is but one example.

In an unsuccessful bid last year, the CofE requested funding for chaplaincy provision at 12 colleges from the College Collaboration Fund. The CofE's action plan involves seeking "some indication of the background to that decision", presumably beyond that offered to other applicants without such privileged access to government ministers. It admits that the application for chaplaincy funding "formed a significant early element in the 'market warming' process" for their expansion into FE. The CofE clearly feels entitled to "the DfE's assistance, to rapidly explore alternative funding opportunities".

Church group of colleges

The CofE's long term aim is to create a "formal Church group of FE colleges", one "where ethos is a binding factor" similar to their network of state funded faith schools. Because very few new colleges are likely to be funded, the CofE's plan is to expand its influence over existing institutions by identifying "those colleges who are positively responding" to its chaplaincy and other outreach. The Church may frame its empire building as benevolent outreach to a neglected education sector. But it's getting a foot in the door with no reflection on whether an exclusive faith ethos is wanted, necessary or appropriate.

For many pupils, attending a FE or sixth form college will be their first educational experience outside of a faith school, or with far greater diversity. The CofE acknowledges that "the FE sector is culturally, religiously, and ethnically very diverse" and that "it is sometimes put, FE Colleges are secular institutions". However, its proposals attack the predominantly secular approach that underpins such successful diversity.

Image: © sirtravelalot/Shutterstock.com.

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A government blueprint for more religious control of schools?

A government blueprint for more religious control of schools?

Posted: Wed, 30th Mar 2022

The government's new proposals for education reform in England could see increased discrimination, and most non-faith schools placed in faith-based academy trusts. Alastair Lichten explores the threat to secular education posed by the 'Opportunity for all' white paper.

'Opportunity for all' sets out the government's vision for the future of England's education system. But perhaps the biggest opportunity created is for further religious control of publicly funded schools.

The white paper published Monday contains a few positive proposals and potential opportunities for secularists. However, the central proposal – a renewed push for all schools to academise and join multi-academy trusts (MATs) – poses a grave threat to the future of secular education.

More funding for CofE and other faith-based academies

Establishing a new MAT has costs for any provider, but the paper singles out those "which Dioceses and other religious authorities face" and gives them special treatment by committing to "develop options for financial support". This would put anyone developing secular or community ethos trusts at a disadvantage.

We've long warned that the government's enthusiasm for faith based MATs risks replacing secular oversight of state schools with opaque religious governance. The established church hopes to see local education authorities "wither on the vine" so they can take over this role. In our 2018 report on academisation and its threat to secular education, we revealed almost half of non-faith schools in MATs where potentially governed by faith based trusts, and hundreds had become faith schools. The proposals risk seriously accelerating this trend.

While the paper claims that once moved into MATs "schools will retain their ethos", the DfE have continually failed to set out meaningful protections for the secular ethos of community schools. This is in marked contrast to proposals to protect what is euphemistically referred to as "statutory freedoms" for faith schools that become academies. We should be challenging, not entrenching, the 'freedoms' faith schools have to discriminate when selecting pupils, staff and governors, or when creating their curriculum.

The commitment to "ensuring that all providers of schools with a religious character remain able to open new schools, once all schools are in trusts" has two worrying implications. The most obvious is more non-faith schools taken over, or faith schools forced under tighter control. But this could also herald another attempt to introduce new 100% religiously selective academies.

New attack on the 50% cap

Currently new academies (free schools) have a 50% cap on religious selection of their pupils. This has meant some religious groups (principally the Catholic Education Service) that wish to practice up to 100% religiously discriminatory admissions have had to propose voluntary aided schools instead. These face comparatively more scrutiny and opportunity for public opposition, so have been less successful. If the government want "all providers" of faith schools to continue opening new schools, and for all new schools to be academies, they may be preparing to weaken the 50% cap.

Rural schools

Protections for rural schools may also lead to increased religious control. Most rural primary schools are already faith based, and 47% of families in rural areas already face "high" or "extreme" restrictions on the choice of a non-faith primary school.

All these schools (faith and secular alike) may now need to join MATs, and Church run diocesan trusts are likely to be the only supported and established option. The idea of a community school free from church control could entirely disappear from large parts of rural England.

Admissions

The paper promises to deliver "fair admissions across England", including strengthening the role of local authorities to provide "fair admissions for their local areas". They even promise to "work with local authorities, trusts, schools and parents to develop options to reform the admissions framework, including the setting of over-subscription criteria".

Mention of religious discrimination and selection is conspicuously absent. But any discussion of admissions reform provides an opportunity to get this on the agenda.

Strengthening RSE

A commitment to "strengthen Relationships, Sex and Health Education" (RSE) guidance is positive. Current guidance undermines RSE by allowing schools to teach through a discriminatory, limiting or shame based religious ethos, and emboldening regressive religious groups targeting schools which do teach inclusive, comprehensive RSE.

Tackling illegal schools

The NSS has been pivotal in challenging unregistered, illegally operating faith schools. These are often deliberately unregistered to avoid safeguarding or education quality regulation. The commitment to "introduce legislation" to strengthen Ofsted's powers in this area is welcome. But such reforms are overdue and need to be coupled with support for local authorities.

What's next?

White papers set out broad principles not specifics. We will be engaging with the government over these proposals, seeking clarity where necessary, opposing greater religious influence, and supporting positive reforms. If you support our call for true equal "opportunity for all", then please consider joining the NSS, or supporting one of our campaigns.

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An inclusive Britain starts with inclusive schools

An inclusive Britain starts with inclusive schools

Posted: Wed, 23rd Mar 2022

Keeping religion and state education separate is the best way of ensuring schools promote free inquiry, equality and inclusivity, argues Stephen Evans.

Last week the government published its 'inclusive Britain strategy', setting out a range of actions to tackle racial and ethnic disparities and promote fairness.

A glaring issue overlooked is that of faith schools. Robust evidence shows that faith-based education builds discrimination into the system and undermines social cohesion by segregating pupils on religious, ethnic, racial and social grounds.

A third of state-funded schools across Britain are faith schools. The vast majority are Christian, and many of these operate discriminatory admissions policies. The impact of this is being keenly felt by families in Liverpool, where parents are struggling to access local schools, and youngsters are facing long journeys because nearby places are reserved for practicing Christian families.

Dr Amina Elmi from the Granby Somali Women's Group has been lobbying for a change in schools' admissions, arguing that admission policies are stopping "people from a certain community - from a certain race or faith - from getting into the schools in their locale".

The problem is acknowledged by local councillor Tom Logan, cabinet member for schools, who points to "a cluster of schools with a religious element to their admissions policies so if you're not Catholic or from the Church of England or you don't want a faith-based education, you'll find it difficult to get a place". Many parents up and down the country will have faced a similar situation.

The government's inclusive Britain strategy is focussed on addressing racial and ethnic disparities, but it's clear that a broader review is needed to address the myriad ways faith schools at best fail to foster, and at worst actively undermine, inclusiveness.

But there are encouraging signs that an increasing number of local people are willing to call out discriminatory admissions and make some noise. One such group is Fair Schools for Oldham, a group of parents, teachers, and local residents who got organised after they realised their new "multi-faith, multi-ethnic, inclusive school" was going to reserve 50% of its places for children of families that practice a faith – meaning half of its places will be closed to many local children. The group says it wants everyone to have equal access to good quality local state-funded schools, "regardless of their social class, religious faith, ethnic origin, or postcode".

Parents in Wigan are also fighting the unfairness of faith-based education. The council's plans to close a community school there will leave many families with no option other than a faith school. This in an area where the high prevalence of faith schools means 90% of families already face high or extreme restrictions on the choice of a non-faith school. Three in ten families across the country face similar restrictions.

Even when children are given a place in a faith school with a religious outlook they don't share, the faith ethos permeates all aspects of school life, making it far from an inclusive environment for many. Even non-faith-based academies and community schools are under a legal obligation to provide a daily act of broadly Christian worship, further undermining inclusivity. The only schools that do a good job of holding inclusive assemblies are those that ignore the law and omit the worship.

But the inclusivity problems in our schools go further than alienating children from different religion or belief backgrounds.

The disinviting of a gay author from a state-funded Catholic faith school in Croydon this month highlights how religious control of schools can negatively impact on inclusivity for LGBT pupils and families too.

The reason given by the Archdiocese of Southwark for cancelling the visit of award-winning children's author Simon James Green was that his representation of LGBT characters and support for LGBT rights was in conflict with their religious ethos.

The diocese says: "At the heart of every Catholic school sits the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church." Herein lies the problem. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "homosexual acts" are "acts of grave depravity", "intrinsically disordered" and "contrary to the natural law." Our publicly funded schools shouldn't be agents of religious dogma.

The National Secular Society has long argued the requirement for faith schools to teach RSE and PSHE in accordance with their religious ethos creates significant tension with their duties under the Equality Act – and provides cover to marginalise LGBT pupils and stigmatise same-sex relationships.

NSS research revealed 77% of secondary faith schools in England are delivering Relationship & Sex Education according to the teachings of the school's religious ethos, rather than in an impartial manner. Many Catholic schools' RSE policies often explicitly denigrated same-sex relationships, or otherwise marginalised or excluded discussions of LGBT issues and representation of LGBT individuals.

Chair of the Catholic news weekly The Tablet Mike Craven says the treatment of Simon James Green "reinforces public perceptions of Catholics as prejudiced and Catholic schools places where teachers are second-guessed by bishops and bureaucrats and laity are ignored and marginalised." He says it will lead taxpayers and politicians to question why hundreds of millions of pounds of public money are being spent to allow a religious institution to reinforce public prejudice against a vulnerable group of young people." Quite.

He questions whether the prohibition on the physical expression of love outside heterosexual marriage is still tenable. That's a matter for the Catholic faithful and the Church. Religions will always have their internal theological disputes. These should be played out in churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, not schools.

There's no shortage of people who claim that religion is a force for good. And in many ways, it can be. But that's not the whole story. It can also be intolerant, divisive and discriminatory.

State education can play a vital role in creating a fairer, more open and more inclusive society. To achieve that, the schools we all fund should be equally welcoming to children of all religion or belief backgrounds, ethnicities and sexual orientations.

An inclusive Britain begins with inclusive schools. We need an education system that, at its core, promotes free inquiry, equality and inclusivity. Organised religion's continuing role in state education is a glaring impediment to that. That's why religion and state education must be kept separate.

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Image: esthermm, Shutterstock

Religious education isn’t the right vehicle for civics

Posted: Wed, 23rd Feb 2022

The government thinks religious education is important for developing children's critical thinking, values, and understanding of different traditions. There are much better ways to achieve this than through the outdated subject of RE, argues Stephen Evans.

In recent years there's been a steady stream of reports recommending reform of religious education – a contentious subject widely regarded as out of date, underfunded, unpopular and lacking a clear purpose.

The government has shown little enthusiasm for addressing RE's myriad problems. It has instead supported the subject remaining on the curriculum even though its original narrow doctrinal purpose has changed irrevocably. It also seems cravenly weak in the face of clerics and religious groups who regard RE as their territory.

But an insight into the government's current thinking on RE has been provided in responses to parliamentary questions about the subject's "societal value for young people".

Summarising the responses, the government thinks religious education is important for:

  • developing children's knowledge of British values and traditions, and those of other countries.
  • developing children's social skills and empathy.
  • developing skills of critical enquiry, creative problem-solving and communication.
  • developing knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society.
  • promoting mutual respect, understanding and tolerance in a diverse society.
  • promoting shared values and challenging racism and discrimination.

These are worthwhile objectives. But surely this is a vision for a civics or citizenship education, not religious education. If this is what the government wants to achieve, the subject should be uncoupled from the religious interests that currently control it and called what it actually is.

At present the law requires all state-funded schools, including free schools and academies, to provide RE as part of their curriculum. The subject, along with a daily act of Christian worship, has been compulsory for the entirety of a pupil's school life since 1944.

The point then was to inculcate Christianity. Now, religious instruction has largely given way to a more non-confessional approach in community schools. But in faith schools, the subject is controlled by religious authorities and still used to inculcate religious viewpoints. The subject is even inspected by religious bodies, rather than the state. Not only does this undermine the subject's credibility, but it also restricts pupils' freedom to develop their own beliefs – the opposite of education.

Even away from the faith schools the subject is an anachronistic anomaly in that the curriculum content is determined locally by committees dominated by faith groups. These committees were originally set up in the very different world of 1944 and have long outlived their usefulness.

The privileging of religion in the way the subject is arranged, and the legal framework that underpins it, is outdated and hard to justify. It is noteworthy that government statements never do attempt to offer any justification for the retention of the 1944 framework.

Schools have a role to play in teaching young people about the diversity of religion and belief in the world they live in, but does it really need to be a subject in its own right?

The time has surely now come to consider dispensing with the whole concept of religious education.

This would free up time for a renewed emphasis on citizenship, an area of learning that provides young people with the knowledge and skills needed to understand, challenge and engage with democratic society. It is a part of the curriculum that encourages pupils to consider religious and other forms of diversity around them – and to understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens. The ethical debates that pupils need to have would still be there, but without the inbuilt assumption that values and morality all flow from religion.

Faith leaders might not like it, but their privileged influence over state education is unjustifiable and needs to be challenged. Education should serve society and its future citizens, not religious interests.

Ensuring every pupil has an entitlement to impartial knowledge about different worldviews makes sense. Equipping young people with a working knowledge of a range of religious and nonreligious beliefs will help them to navigate the increasingly diverse world around them.

But an in-depth understanding of the world's religions isn't a necessary pre-condition for a peaceful and tolerant society. Moral and political virtues such as civility, citizenship, tolerance and inclusivity, coupled with an awareness of and respect for human rights, will nurture greater harmony and social cohesion. These shared values should be promoted throughout our schools. Religious education isn't the appropriate vehicle for that.

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