Misplaced Faith
Our right-wing Conservative government has issued a press release entitled “Government to Lift Cap on Faith School Places”.
At the moment, faith-based free schools are legally forbidden to select more than 50% of their pupil intake on the grounds of religion. The reason behind this cap is to stop schools becoming isolated islands of a single worldview, thereby disadvantaging their pupils by subjecting them to racial and religious segregation, disadvantage and discrimination. At a time when society is fracturing and increasingly at war with itself we need policies that bring people together not ones that further divide them.
Putting aside the fact that most of the world’s bloody conflicts have their origins in religious differences, is it really correct for Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education to state that lifting the cap on faith school places will "create more good schools"?
Keegan, a devout Roman Catholic, went to a succession of Roman Catholic schools, of which she says:
“They basically all of them, because all of the teachers, all of those faith schools which were fantastic schools, they got me where I am today, but they also instilled faith in me and it’s a core part of who I am today.”
(www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/stories-blogs-and-features/rt-hon-gillian-keegan-mp-secretary-state-education : 27/01/23)
As a child, Keegan, by her own admission, absorbed the beliefs and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church to a point they became a “core part" of who she is.
Some might call this brainwashing, and therein lies the problem. Religious education and practice, and I mean ALL the different religions, are very good at indoctrinating children into thinking in a particular and narrow way. If children are denied interaction with children of different faiths and believes, then how will they ever integrate into wider society as adults? We hear constant criticism of our failure to listen to the other person’s point of view, but if we subject our children to faith indoctrination as part of their day-to-day education, then expect this problem to get worse not better.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society has stated:
“Our state schools should bring children from different backgrounds together, not divide them along religious lines. Abandoning the cap to pave way for more religiously selective schools will exacerbate the discrimination, division, and disadvantage that faith based schools encourages.”
(www.secularism.org.uk/news/2024/05/nss-appalled-at-plans-for-more-discriminatory-faith-schools (01/05/24)
There are other problems attached to this proposed move by the government. Allowing 100% section of pupils on religious grounds acts as a recruitment sergeant for that particular religion. What’s more, the taxpayer will fund that recruitment drive, and that is not the best use of taxpayers money. A third problem concern’s Keegan's premise that “high performing faith school providers will be able to create more good school places and create strong multi-academy trusts around the country where there is demand.” (GOV.UK: “Government to Lift Cap on Faith School Places”, 01/05/24)
Whereas many faith schools DO produce good examination results, (and we we leave aside the argument that education is about more than examination results) these schools not only select pupils according to region but also according to the socio-economic status of their parents. The Sutton Trust found that 19 of the top 20 most socially selective schools are faith schools, where eligibility for free school meals (FSM) was used as a selective criteria.
The “FSM gap” is the difference between those pupils eligible for FSM’s in a defined catchment area and those who actually attend a school. Faith schools had a “significantly larger” (more negative) FSM gap than did non-faith schools in the same area. In short, faith schools are selecting pupils not only on religious grounds but on perceived academic ability as determined by their families economic circumstances. Is it any wonder they perform better than some non-faith schools!
What Roman Catholic educated Keegan is proposing is a continuation and strengthening of a two-tier state system of education, whereby the best pupils are admitted to faith schools while the remainder are placed in non-faith schools. The rich and powerful are already insulated from the common herd via their almost exclusive access to private schools. Now we are witnessing the creation of a second layer of social apartheid via the creation of state funded 100% faith schools.
