Religious education, an oxymoron

Baroness Murphy — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:53:49 +0000

In the committee stages of the Academies Bill yesterday we had a fascinating debate about the role of faith schools and the risks they pose. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/100623-0005.htm#10062341000480 . I am concerned that a quarter of existing academies are faith schools, ranging from the traditional Church of England local community primary schools to the highly selective fundamentalist Christian, minority orthodox Jewish and Islamic schools which are highly selective, employ teachers of only one faith, take up huge chunks of teaching time with reciting the holy books and are so obviously divisive in a community that I am amazed we tolerate their establishment. Most of the C of E schools were established in the early or mid parts of the nineteenth century when the church vestry was in practice the local authority; almost all are broadly non-denominational and non-selective; their contacts with the local church are highly variable. But we heard ample evidence from around the chamber that there was deep concern about the divisiveness of segregated schools on community cohesion. Have we learnt nothing from Northern Ireland? As Lord Kilclooney said, segregated schools attract parents to move near the school and before you know where you are you have ghettoes of families clustering round these schools with very little contact with neighbouring communities. Some of the Islamic schools are little more than madrassas for grooming young people into a fanatic faith. Anyone who doubts me should have a look at these schools websites to see what I mean. We worry about people being taught the idiocies of creationism, but there are now many schools teaching ‘islamic sciences’, another oxymoron. But more important than that, I want children to grow up sitting next to a Christian, a Jew, an Atheist, a Catholic and know them as friends. It is crucial we understand the importance of belief in people’s value systems, all children should be taught about the world’s religions but an in depth understanding is unlikely to occur where exposure is only to one.

Education is the process by which children learn to question, test out ideas, get to grips with logic, reason and hard facts and how to be a good socially responsible citizen. The State should tolerate and respect the religious faiths of all its citizens but should surely not seek to proselytise any of them. (Yes I know we still have the established church although that matter didn’t come up at all) It’s my view that religion is for parents and religious organisations to pursue outside of school if they wish. The new Minister Lord Hill of Oareford gave a fair answer to the many points but I fear that faith schools will continue to grow. See Lord Hill below.

Lords of the Blog » Religious education

Religious education, an oxymoron