Tags: School admissions
Ep 63: Christian education challenged in court – a Northern Ireland case
Posted: Tue, 21st Dec 2021
A ground-breaking case on the right to a pluralistic education in Northern Ireland is currently being considered by the High Court.
A father of a seven-year-old girl at a primary school in Belfast has brought judicial review proceedings against the school and the Department of Education. He argues that the school's collective worship and Religious Education provisions are narrowly Christian, being effectively designed to indoctrinate children and denying their right to a pluralistic education, in which no one worldview is privileged over others. The case was heard by the High Court of Northern Ireland on 22-23 November.
In this episode, Darragh Mackin, solicitor for the applicants, discusses the case with Emma Park. Darragh is a partner at Phoenix Law, a firm of solicitors in Belfast that specialises in human rights. He describes how the girl's family, who are non-religious, discovered her praying late into the night. This led them to investigate the way that her school was imposing Christianity on young children through religious assemblies and RE lessons.
Darragh outlines the main issues in the case and the human rights principles involved. He explains how Christianity is embedded into the legal framework governing education in Northern Ireland. He also argues that proselytising religious instruction can reinforce the divisions at the heart of the region's historic troubles, and that it is therefore all the more important to ensure that children are brought up with open minds.
Follow-up
• Christianity being 'wrongly promoted and privileged in the classroom', court hears – Irish News
• Laws requiring exclusively Christian RE to face court challenge in NI
• Bill to replace worship with inclusive assemblies heads to Commons
Watch this episode on YouTube | Direct MP3 Link | Transcripts
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Podcast produced by Emma Park for the National Secular Society (2021). All rights reserved.
Ep 16: Operation Christmas Child | Faith schools
Posted: Mon, 14th Oct 2019
In this week's episode, Emma Park speaks to Megan Manson about Operation Christmas Child, a programme that encourages schoolchildren and youth groups around the UK to send Christmas shoeboxes to children in developing countries. Those sending the shoeboxes may not be aware that they are being used as part of a conversion drive by an evangelical Christian charity, Samaritan's Purse. The case raises the question of whether 'the advancement of religion' should still be a charitable purpose.
Emma then speaks to Alastair Lichten about the NSS's revelation that 20,000 children have been assigned to faith schools in the state sector this year despite their parents opting for a non-faith school as their first choice.
The episode also features highlights from our 2019 Bradlaugh Lecture. Assistant head Andrew Moffat defended inclusive education in his talk 'No Outsiders: Reclaiming Radical Ideas in Schools'.
Watch this episode on YouTube | Direct MP3 Link | Transcripts
Notes
• Does Operation Christmas Child benefit the public?
• Samaritan's Purse Mission Statement
• Charities Act 2011, section 3: List of charitable purposes
• Complete videos of the NSS's Bradlaugh Lectures
• 20,000 children sent to faith schools against parental preferences in 2019
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