Newsline 16 September 2016

We're working hard to stop the spread of faith schools and oppose the Government's deeply damaging proposal to increase segregation and discrimination in new faith schools.

But we need your help: Write to your MP today to help us oppose this new wave of faith schools.

The Government should be doing absolutely everything it can to promote integration. The dangers of religious divisions were seen just last weekend when up to 100 Sikh men burst into a gurdwara to disrupt an interfaith marriage – one of many similar attacks in recent years.

We need a cohesive society. We know faith schools are a big part of the problem. But the Government is acting in a deeply counter-productive way. If you're concerned about this, and want to help, contact your MP, and join the National Secular Society today.

News, Blogs & Opinion

	Government launches consultation on abolishing faith school admissions cap News \| Tue, 13th Sep 2016 The Government has launched a consultation on controversial plans to abolish the 50% admission cap on faith schools, which currently limits religious discrimination in the admissions policies of oversubscribed new faith schools. The Department for Education claims that it will replace the admissions cap with measures that "promote inclusivity," an assessment the National Secular Society has rejected. The proposals suggested in the Green Paper include twinning arrangements between schools of different faiths, and mixed-faith multi-academy trusts which the Department for Education claim would "promote greater cohesion". The Government has also suggested that before new faith schools are set up that local demand must be proven and that "parents of other faiths would be happy to send their children there". In addition the Green Paper says new faith schools should "Consider placing an independent member or director who is of a different faith or no faith at all on the governing body of new faith free schools. This will help ensure that there is independent input into the governance of the school and will help ensure that they have a wider perspective beyond their own faith." NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans commented on the proposals: "On reading the Green Paper it is clear that the glaring problem in promoting integration in our education system is the existence of faith schools. This is the elephant in the room, which the Government refuses to address in any meaningful or serious way. It is skirting around the main issue. "Half-hearted measures, such as those included in the paper, are no substitute for pupils actually being educated alongside each other and forming enduring friendships across different groups. "Faith schools are divisive, and by allowing 100% religious selection in new religious schools the Government will only worsen the segregation and discrimination that they create. "I hope as many people as possible will contact their MPs, urging them to oppose these proposals and instead support schools that are open and inclusive, catering for all local children regardless of their religious or non-religious beliefs. The time has come to end the discrimination and segregation caused by faith schools – not extend it". Senior Conservative MP Ken Clarke raised his concerns about the proposals in the House of Commons. He asked Education Secretary Justine Greening if she ought to "reconsider pretty fundamentally the announcement she has made about faith schools". "We need to live in a society where we reduce barriers and improve contacts and integration between people of all faiths. If the system has been imperfect, we need to know why it has not worked. It may be right to modify it, but will not simply removing the cap altogether lead us into considerable danger?" The Education Secretary claimed that she wanted to make sure that "all new faith free schools are truly inclusive".
	Facilitating more religious segregation in faith schools can only harm social cohesion Opinion \| Mon, 12th Sep 2016 In a move devoid of any common sense, Theresa May's government looks set to capitulate to the demands of religious groups by relaxing admissions rules for faith-based academies, allowing them to select all pupils along religious lines. It's hard to think of a more retrograde policy than the facilitation of greater religious segregation of children and young people in our education system. What are we to make of the Government's warnings about schoolchildren from minority religious backgrounds having little or no understanding of others, when their policies seem destined to exacerbate exactly that? Only last year the schools minister Lord Nash said the Government had "no plans to review the 50% limit for faith-based admissions to free schools", describing the cap as "an important way of supporting these schools to be inclusive and to meet the needs of a broad mix of families". So what changed? Part of the answer may lie in the fact that 900,000 new school places will be needed in England by 2024. The free schools initiative was originally hailed as a parent and teacher-led 'schools revolution', but as it turns out, parents don't really have the time, expertise or inclination to open their own schools. Only a tiny proportion of new schools are being set up by parent groups, most are being established by multi-academy chains and faith groups. The success of free schools policy very much relies on school sponsors coming forward - and until now the Catholic Church has been reluctant to do so, rejecting limitations on the extent to which it can discriminate against non-Catholics. It insists that the public money it receives to run schools should be spent on providing schools to serve only people of the Catholic faith. It's clear that this latest proposal to relax admissions arrangements follows relentless lobbying from religious organisations urging the Government to remove the 50% cap. But by rushing to satisfy the demands of faith-based education providers, the Government risks recklessly neglecting the civic purpose of state education - which surely includes preparing children for their role as equal citizens of a multicultural, religiously diverse liberal democracy. In a society as diverse as ours, rather than facilitating segregation along religious lines, the Government should be doing everything it can to ensure that children of all faiths and none are educated together in inclusive schools. Allowing faith schools to apply 100% discrimination is a gargantuan step in the wrong direction - and the dangers are clear. In David Cameron's Birmingham speech on countering extremism, the former prime minister said: "It cannot be right... that people can grow up and go to school and hardly ever come into meaningful contact with people from other backgrounds and faiths. That doesn't foster a sense of shared belonging and understanding - it can drive people apart." The Government's horribly muddled thinking over faith schools is illustrated by its own guidance on 'promoting fundamental British values" in schools. On one hand it calls it "unacceptable" for schools to "promote discrimination against people or groups on the basis of their belief, opinion or background" yet at the same time seems content to allow them to do just that with regard to their admissions arrangements. It's hard to see how schools can effectively teach "mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs" if they don't even want kids with different faiths and beliefs in their schools. Perhaps it's only years further down the line that we'll be able to fully assess the damage religious schooling causes to the social fabric of British society, but the warning signs are already there. A look across the Irish Sea also provides valuable lessons that politicians would do well to learn. Only recently the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child rebuked the UK over the way Northern Ireland's education system still separates children along religious lines. The UN called on the UK to do more to promote integrated education, but here we are going in the opposite direction, allowing yet more segregation. In the long-term the only real solution is to phase out faith schools and replace them with inclusive secular schools where people of all faiths and none can be educated together. Unfortunately, we're still heading in the wrong direction. Despite Britain being one of the most secularised countries in the world, one third of all schools in England and Wales are faith schools, with an increasing number of minority faith schools opening, further fragmenting state education along religious and ethnic lines. A proliferation of faith-based schools may serve the needs of organised religion, but they will fail children, be bad for communities, and bad for Britain. The Government should think again. Stephen Evans is the campaigns director of the National Secular Society. The views expressed in our blogs are those of the author and may not represent the views of the NSS. Follow him on Twitter @Stephenmevans1 The Government is currently consulting on allowing new faith free schools to select up to 100% of pupils based on their faith. Please take part in the consultation, and urge the Government to end discrimination and segregation in faith schools - not extend it.
	NSS calls for inquiry into Government’s faith schools admissions reform News \| Tue, 13th Sep 2016 The National Secular Society has written to Neil Carmichael MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, calling for an inquiry into the Government's plans to abolish the 50% cap on faith-based admissions to free schools. The proposal to allow faith-based academies to select 100% of places on the basis of religion have been lambasted by critics, including the National Secular Society, for risking an increase in religious, ethnic and social segregation in state schools. In a letter to Mr Carmichael, the NSS said that an inquiry would be the only way of ensuring parliamentary oversight for the reforms – which could otherwise be enacted without any debate in Parliament. The cap was originally introduced to try and make faith schools more "inclusive", something which the Government says it has failed to achieve. Many minority faith schools are undersubscribed, with members of other faith and belief backgrounds particularly reluctant to send their children to them. Stephen Evans, campaigns director of the National Secular Society, said: "Rather than lift the cap, religious discrimination in admissions to publicly funded schools should be abandoned. The removal of the cap has significant adverse implications for integration and social cohesion. It's alarming that the Government could give effect to this significant policy change without any reference to Parliament. We are therefore calling for a select committee inquiry provide a degree of parliamentary scrutiny." The NSS also called on the Committee to consider "alternative remedies to the lack of inclusion that the cap was intended to counter". "There is a significant and growing weight of academic opinion confirming that religiously-based admissions criteria produce more religiously, ethnically and socially segregated schools. We believe that an inquiry by your committee is essential to provide a forum for such evidence to influence the policy making process," the letter to Mr Carmichael said. The Catholic Education Service will reportedly seek to open 35 to 40 new Catholic free schools across the country once they have more freedom to discriminate on the basis of faith. Mr Evans said: "A proliferation of faith-based schools will seriously impede the integration of religious minorities and exacerbate the ghettoisation we're seeing in many of our towns and cities. "The removal of the 50% faith-based admissions cap will also increase the already high levels of discrimination against children from non-religious families, who in many areas are already finding their options severely limited."
	New powers needed to investigate illegal religious school, councils say News \| Fri, 16th Sep 2016 The National Secular Society has welcomed calls from the Local Government Association to be given more powers to tackle illegal faith schools and investigate the education of the 37,000 children who are home schooled. The Association, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said that home schooling was sometimes being used as a cover for children who really attended illegal faith schools which are not registered with the Department for Education. Councillor Richard Watts of the Local Government Association said that "in some cases, a child listed as home schooled can, in fact, be attending an illegal school. With limited powers to check on the work a child is doing, however, councils are unable to find out whether this is the case. They work closely with their communities to help identify where illegal schools are, but the ability to enter homes and other premises and speak to children would go a long way towards tackling the problem." "In addition, not all children are registered as home schooled, particularly where they never joined the mainstream education system, or have moved to a different area. Placing a legal duty on parents to register home-schooled children with their local authority would help councils to monitor how children are being educated, and prevent children from 'disappearing' from the oversight of services designed to keep them safe." There has been a drastic increase in the number of children who are recorded as being home schooled, and a 65% increase has seen the total number of home schooled children who are registered as 37,000. The Local Government Association said that the "significant rise was linked by the Education Secretary and Ofsted to an increase in illegal schools". Watts continued: "If councils have powers and appropriate funding to check up on children's schooling, we can help make sure children aren't being taught in dangerous environments, and are getting the education they deserve, while standing a better chance of finding and tackling illegal, unregulated schools more quickly. "We also need to know that where there are concerns, the right regulations are in place so that Ofsted and the Department for Education can close illegal schools swiftly." The LGA said that "In some cases, children have been taught in warehouses and old factories, and in facilities with open drains or no running water. Some illegal schools have also been linked to the teaching of extremist views." To fully investigate illegal faith schools, the LGA said that councils should be allowed to "enter homes and other premises and see children to check the suitability of education being delivered if necessary, and to compel parents to register home educated children". NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans said: "It is welcome to hear the Local Government Association being so proactive in dealing with this problem. We have seen reports of individual councils not doing enough to investigate and identify illegal faith schools. These issues cannot be avoided for reasons of religious sensitivity. All children are entitled to a good education, too many are being failed." Ofsted warned recently that some councils and police forces were not willing to investigate unregistered religious schools because they "don't want to upset community relations" and Bradford Council was accused of being in "denial" over illegal faith schools. See also: Allowing children to languish in illegal religious 'schools' is the bigotry of low expectations.
	Campaigns against school worship gain momentum in Scotland and Northern Ireland News \| Wed, 14th Sep 2016 The Humanist Society Scotland (HSS) has launched a judicial review against the Scottish Government following its refusal to allow sixth form pupils to opt themselves out of Religious Observance. Parental permission is currently required before pupils in Scotland can opt out of religious observance in schools. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made a strong criticism of this arrangement, recently recommending that Scotland repeal legislation on "compulsory attendance at collective worship in publicly funded schools and ensure that children can independently exercise the right to withdraw from religious worship at school." Chief Executive of the HSS Gordon MacRae said: "Today in Scotland young people are trusted to get married, join the army and vote in elections and for the constitutional future of Scotland . However, Scottish Ministers still do not trust them to make their own decisions about attending Religious Observance or to give young people the same rights as those living in England and Wales. "For sometime now Humanist Society Scotland has been calling on the Scottish Government to update its policy on Religious Observance. I had hoped that if they would not listen to us then at least they would listen to the United Nations Children's Rights Committee. "We have worked with a number of organisations and individuals over the years to seek to reform Religious Observance, most notably the Church of Scotland in 2014, with whom we issued a joint call for reform. "Sadly our efforts to seek progressive reform of this outdated requirement of Scottish education has failed. The Scottish Government's policy on religious observance is a mess, a classic political fudge. Our young people deserve better." The HSS have now launched legal action following the refusal of the Scottish Government to allow young people to withdraw themselves from religious observance in line with the recommendations of the UN. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland a campaign to allow teens the right to opt-out of collective worship recently won the backing of the Alliance Party. Scott Moore of the 'Let Schools Choose' campaign said he was optimistic about securing more political support. "We believe that pupils of all ages should be able to determine their own religious views at a suitable age. The state has no business recommending, implicitly or explicitly, what someone's religious views should be. Nor do they have any business delivering biased education to make people more likely to believe a certain religious view. "Just because a religious view is agreed with by a majority doesn't mean it should get privileges above other religious views. "We're now in a great place to win the support of other parties for this policy - if we can do that, we can bring this policy to the Assembly," he said. "Please do your bit and email your local MLA, asking if they will back a self opt-out from collective worship for post-16/sixth form students". Currently students in Northern Ireland can only withdraw from prayers with parental permission. The right for sixth form pupils to withdraw themselves from collective worship in England and Wales was won after campaigning by the National Secular Society. Responding to representations made by the NSS just last month, Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Education in England, said the Government had "no plans to change the current requirements for the daily act of collective worship". The NSS is seeking a change in the law in England and Wales to replace the legal requirement on schools to provide worship with a new duty to ensure that all aspects of the school day, including assemblies, are inclusive of all pupils.

NSS Speaks Out

The next section of Conatus News' interview with our president, Terry Sanderson, was published.

Quotes of the Week

"As someone whose work is concerned entirely with the promotion of community cohesion and integration, the Government's proposals to drop the current requirement for new religious schools to keep at least half of their places open to local children, regardless of religion or belief, is incredibly worrying."
Professor Ted Cantle, founder of the Institute of Community Cohesion.

"In the absence of successful prosecutions, FGM remains a national scandal that is continuing to result in the preventable mutilation of thousands of girls."
Home Affairs Select Committee.

Essays of the Week

Religious selection in school admissions is utterly deleterious for integration.
Professor Ted Cantle, Telegraph.

Faith schools segregate kids - so why is Theresa May expanding them?
Julia Rampen, New Statesman.

We cannot let religious conservatives poison our society – whether Muslim or Sikh.
Shashank Joshi, Telegraph.

Faith schools produce narrow-minded children – why does the state fund them?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, IB Times.

	Government launches consultation on abolishing faith school admissions cap News \| Tue, 13th Sep 2016 The Government has launched a consultation on controversial plans to abolish the 50% admission cap on faith schools, which currently limits religious discrimination in the admissions policies of oversubscribed new faith schools. The Department for Education claims that it will replace the admissions cap with measures that "promote inclusivity," an assessment the National Secular Society has rejected. The proposals suggested in the Green Paper include twinning arrangements between schools of different faiths, and mixed-faith multi-academy trusts which the Department for Education claim would "promote greater cohesion". The Government has also suggested that before new faith schools are set up that local demand must be proven and that "parents of other faiths would be happy to send their children there". In addition the Green Paper says new faith schools should "Consider placing an independent member or director who is of a different faith or no faith at all on the governing body of new faith free schools. This will help ensure that there is independent input into the governance of the school and will help ensure that they have a wider perspective beyond their own faith." NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans commented on the proposals: "On reading the Green Paper it is clear that the glaring problem in promoting integration in our education system is the existence of faith schools. This is the elephant in the room, which the Government refuses to address in any meaningful or serious way. It is skirting around the main issue. "Half-hearted measures, such as those included in the paper, are no substitute for pupils actually being educated alongside each other and forming enduring friendships across different groups. "Faith schools are divisive, and by allowing 100% religious selection in new religious schools the Government will only worsen the segregation and discrimination that they create. "I hope as many people as possible will contact their MPs, urging them to oppose these proposals and instead support schools that are open and inclusive, catering for all local children regardless of their religious or non-religious beliefs. The time has come to end the discrimination and segregation caused by faith schools – not extend it". Senior Conservative MP Ken Clarke raised his concerns about the proposals in the House of Commons. He asked Education Secretary Justine Greening if she ought to "reconsider pretty fundamentally the announcement she has made about faith schools". "We need to live in a society where we reduce barriers and improve contacts and integration between people of all faiths. If the system has been imperfect, we need to know why it has not worked. It may be right to modify it, but will not simply removing the cap altogether lead us into considerable danger?" The Education Secretary claimed that she wanted to make sure that "all new faith free schools are truly inclusive".
	Facilitating more religious segregation in faith schools can only harm social cohesion Opinion \| Mon, 12th Sep 2016 In a move devoid of any common sense, Theresa May's government looks set to capitulate to the demands of religious groups by relaxing admissions rules for faith-based academies, allowing them to select all pupils along religious lines. It's hard to think of a more retrograde policy than the facilitation of greater religious segregation of children and young people in our education system. What are we to make of the Government's warnings about schoolchildren from minority religious backgrounds having little or no understanding of others, when their policies seem destined to exacerbate exactly that? Only last year the schools minister Lord Nash said the Government had "no plans to review the 50% limit for faith-based admissions to free schools", describing the cap as "an important way of supporting these schools to be inclusive and to meet the needs of a broad mix of families". So what changed? Part of the answer may lie in the fact that 900,000 new school places will be needed in England by 2024. The free schools initiative was originally hailed as a parent and teacher-led 'schools revolution', but as it turns out, parents don't really have the time, expertise or inclination to open their own schools. Only a tiny proportion of new schools are being set up by parent groups, most are being established by multi-academy chains and faith groups. The success of free schools policy very much relies on school sponsors coming forward - and until now the Catholic Church has been reluctant to do so, rejecting limitations on the extent to which it can discriminate against non-Catholics. It insists that the public money it receives to run schools should be spent on providing schools to serve only people of the Catholic faith. It's clear that this latest proposal to relax admissions arrangements follows relentless lobbying from religious organisations urging the Government to remove the 50% cap. But by rushing to satisfy the demands of faith-based education providers, the Government risks recklessly neglecting the civic purpose of state education - which surely includes preparing children for their role as equal citizens of a multicultural, religiously diverse liberal democracy. In a society as diverse as ours, rather than facilitating segregation along religious lines, the Government should be doing everything it can to ensure that children of all faiths and none are educated together in inclusive schools. Allowing faith schools to apply 100% discrimination is a gargantuan step in the wrong direction - and the dangers are clear. In David Cameron's Birmingham speech on countering extremism, the former prime minister said: "It cannot be right... that people can grow up and go to school and hardly ever come into meaningful contact with people from other backgrounds and faiths. That doesn't foster a sense of shared belonging and understanding - it can drive people apart." The Government's horribly muddled thinking over faith schools is illustrated by its own guidance on 'promoting fundamental British values" in schools. On one hand it calls it "unacceptable" for schools to "promote discrimination against people or groups on the basis of their belief, opinion or background" yet at the same time seems content to allow them to do just that with regard to their admissions arrangements. It's hard to see how schools can effectively teach "mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs" if they don't even want kids with different faiths and beliefs in their schools. Perhaps it's only years further down the line that we'll be able to fully assess the damage religious schooling causes to the social fabric of British society, but the warning signs are already there. A look across the Irish Sea also provides valuable lessons that politicians would do well to learn. Only recently the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child rebuked the UK over the way Northern Ireland's education system still separates children along religious lines. The UN called on the UK to do more to promote integrated education, but here we are going in the opposite direction, allowing yet more segregation. In the long-term the only real solution is to phase out faith schools and replace them with inclusive secular schools where people of all faiths and none can be educated together. Unfortunately, we're still heading in the wrong direction. Despite Britain being one of the most secularised countries in the world, one third of all schools in England and Wales are faith schools, with an increasing number of minority faith schools opening, further fragmenting state education along religious and ethnic lines. A proliferation of faith-based schools may serve the needs of organised religion, but they will fail children, be bad for communities, and bad for Britain. The Government should think again. Stephen Evans is the campaigns director of the National Secular Society. The views expressed in our blogs are those of the author and may not represent the views of the NSS. Follow him on Twitter @Stephenmevans1 The Government is currently consulting on allowing new faith free schools to select up to 100% of pupils based on their faith. Please take part in the consultation, and urge the Government to end discrimination and segregation in faith schools - not extend it.
	NSS calls for inquiry into Government’s faith schools admissions reform News \| Tue, 13th Sep 2016 The National Secular Society has written to Neil Carmichael MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, calling for an inquiry into the Government's plans to abolish the 50% cap on faith-based admissions to free schools. The proposal to allow faith-based academies to select 100% of places on the basis of religion have been lambasted by critics, including the National Secular Society, for risking an increase in religious, ethnic and social segregation in state schools. In a letter to Mr Carmichael, the NSS said that an inquiry would be the only way of ensuring parliamentary oversight for the reforms – which could otherwise be enacted without any debate in Parliament. The cap was originally introduced to try and make faith schools more "inclusive", something which the Government says it has failed to achieve. Many minority faith schools are undersubscribed, with members of other faith and belief backgrounds particularly reluctant to send their children to them. Stephen Evans, campaigns director of the National Secular Society, said: "Rather than lift the cap, religious discrimination in admissions to publicly funded schools should be abandoned. The removal of the cap has significant adverse implications for integration and social cohesion. It's alarming that the Government could give effect to this significant policy change without any reference to Parliament. We are therefore calling for a select committee inquiry provide a degree of parliamentary scrutiny." The NSS also called on the Committee to consider "alternative remedies to the lack of inclusion that the cap was intended to counter". "There is a significant and growing weight of academic opinion confirming that religiously-based admissions criteria produce more religiously, ethnically and socially segregated schools. We believe that an inquiry by your committee is essential to provide a forum for such evidence to influence the policy making process," the letter to Mr Carmichael said. The Catholic Education Service will reportedly seek to open 35 to 40 new Catholic free schools across the country once they have more freedom to discriminate on the basis of faith. Mr Evans said: "A proliferation of faith-based schools will seriously impede the integration of religious minorities and exacerbate the ghettoisation we're seeing in many of our towns and cities. "The removal of the 50% faith-based admissions cap will also increase the already high levels of discrimination against children from non-religious families, who in many areas are already finding their options severely limited."
	New powers needed to investigate illegal religious school, councils say News \| Fri, 16th Sep 2016 The National Secular Society has welcomed calls from the Local Government Association to be given more powers to tackle illegal faith schools and investigate the education of the 37,000 children who are home schooled. The Association, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said that home schooling was sometimes being used as a cover for children who really attended illegal faith schools which are not registered with the Department for Education. Councillor Richard Watts of the Local Government Association said that "in some cases, a child listed as home schooled can, in fact, be attending an illegal school. With limited powers to check on the work a child is doing, however, councils are unable to find out whether this is the case. They work closely with their communities to help identify where illegal schools are, but the ability to enter homes and other premises and speak to children would go a long way towards tackling the problem." "In addition, not all children are registered as home schooled, particularly where they never joined the mainstream education system, or have moved to a different area. Placing a legal duty on parents to register home-schooled children with their local authority would help councils to monitor how children are being educated, and prevent children from 'disappearing' from the oversight of services designed to keep them safe." There has been a drastic increase in the number of children who are recorded as being home schooled, and a 65% increase has seen the total number of home schooled children who are registered as 37,000. The Local Government Association said that the "significant rise was linked by the Education Secretary and Ofsted to an increase in illegal schools". Watts continued: "If councils have powers and appropriate funding to check up on children's schooling, we can help make sure children aren't being taught in dangerous environments, and are getting the education they deserve, while standing a better chance of finding and tackling illegal, unregulated schools more quickly. "We also need to know that where there are concerns, the right regulations are in place so that Ofsted and the Department for Education can close illegal schools swiftly." The LGA said that "In some cases, children have been taught in warehouses and old factories, and in facilities with open drains or no running water. Some illegal schools have also been linked to the teaching of extremist views." To fully investigate illegal faith schools, the LGA said that councils should be allowed to "enter homes and other premises and see children to check the suitability of education being delivered if necessary, and to compel parents to register home educated children". NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans said: "It is welcome to hear the Local Government Association being so proactive in dealing with this problem. We have seen reports of individual councils not doing enough to investigate and identify illegal faith schools. These issues cannot be avoided for reasons of religious sensitivity. All children are entitled to a good education, too many are being failed." Ofsted warned recently that some councils and police forces were not willing to investigate unregistered religious schools because they "don't want to upset community relations" and Bradford Council was accused of being in "denial" over illegal faith schools. See also: Allowing children to languish in illegal religious 'schools' is the bigotry of low expectations.
	Campaigns against school worship gain momentum in Scotland and Northern Ireland News \| Wed, 14th Sep 2016 The Humanist Society Scotland (HSS) has launched a judicial review against the Scottish Government following its refusal to allow sixth form pupils to opt themselves out of Religious Observance. Parental permission is currently required before pupils in Scotland can opt out of religious observance in schools. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made a strong criticism of this arrangement, recently recommending that Scotland repeal legislation on "compulsory attendance at collective worship in publicly funded schools and ensure that children can independently exercise the right to withdraw from religious worship at school." Chief Executive of the HSS Gordon MacRae said: "Today in Scotland young people are trusted to get married, join the army and vote in elections and for the constitutional future of Scotland . However, Scottish Ministers still do not trust them to make their own decisions about attending Religious Observance or to give young people the same rights as those living in England and Wales. "For sometime now Humanist Society Scotland has been calling on the Scottish Government to update its policy on Religious Observance. I had hoped that if they would not listen to us then at least they would listen to the United Nations Children's Rights Committee. "We have worked with a number of organisations and individuals over the years to seek to reform Religious Observance, most notably the Church of Scotland in 2014, with whom we issued a joint call for reform. "Sadly our efforts to seek progressive reform of this outdated requirement of Scottish education has failed. The Scottish Government's policy on religious observance is a mess, a classic political fudge. Our young people deserve better." The HSS have now launched legal action following the refusal of the Scottish Government to allow young people to withdraw themselves from religious observance in line with the recommendations of the UN. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland a campaign to allow teens the right to opt-out of collective worship recently won the backing of the Alliance Party. Scott Moore of the 'Let Schools Choose' campaign said he was optimistic about securing more political support. "We believe that pupils of all ages should be able to determine their own religious views at a suitable age. The state has no business recommending, implicitly or explicitly, what someone's religious views should be. Nor do they have any business delivering biased education to make people more likely to believe a certain religious view. "Just because a religious view is agreed with by a majority doesn't mean it should get privileges above other religious views. "We're now in a great place to win the support of other parties for this policy - if we can do that, we can bring this policy to the Assembly," he said. "Please do your bit and email your local MLA, asking if they will back a self opt-out from collective worship for post-16/sixth form students". Currently students in Northern Ireland can only withdraw from prayers with parental permission. The right for sixth form pupils to withdraw themselves from collective worship in England and Wales was won after campaigning by the National Secular Society. Responding to representations made by the NSS just last month, Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Education in England, said the Government had "no plans to change the current requirements for the daily act of collective worship". The NSS is seeking a change in the law in England and Wales to replace the legal requirement on schools to provide worship with a new duty to ensure that all aspects of the school day, including assemblies, are inclusive of all pupils.

Newsline 16 September 2016

News, Blogs & Opinion

Government launches consultation on abolishing faith school admissions cap

Facilitating more religious segregation in faith schools can only harm social cohesion

NSS calls for inquiry into Government’s faith schools admissions reform

New powers needed to investigate illegal religious school, councils say

Campaigns against school worship gain momentum in Scotland and Northern Ireland

NSS Speaks Out

Quotes of the Week

Essays of the Week

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