Accord Coalition and the state funding of religion.

Yesterday Paul Pettinger from the Accord Coalition can to give a talk to my humanist group.  Accord is a ‘coalition of organizations which includes religious groups, humanists, trade unions and human rights campaigners’.  They campaign for legislative reform regarding state funding faith schools.  Whilst not taking a position on the existence of faith schools per se, they campaign to achieve the following aims:

All state-funded schools should:

1. Operate admissions policies that take no account of pupils’ – or their parents’ – religion or beliefs.

2. Operate recruitment and employment policies that do not discriminate on the grounds of religion or belief.

3. Follow an objective, fair and balanced syllabus for education about religious and non-religious beliefs – whether determined by their local authority or by any future national syllabus or curriculum for RE.

4. Be made accountable under a single inspection regime for RE, Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship.

5. Provide their pupils with inclusive, inspiring and stimulating assemblies in place of compulsory acts of worship.

As well as discussing general issues relating to the state-funding of faith schools, he debunked several myths that are often raised in their defence.  For example, whilst some faith schools may produce very good results, this is skewed by their admissions policies.  If they draw on a certain demographic, they may get better than average results.  This leads to over-subscription, which, in turn allows them to be even more selective (both in terms of the pupils they take and the teachers they employ) and so standards go up…and so on…

Currently faith-schools need only contribute 10% of the capital costs of a school, and yet they yield huge influence when it comes to how the school is run.  The presentation also highlighted the dangers of segregating children based on the religion of their parents, in terms of social understanding and cohesion, and talked about the importance of ensuring that all children receive clear and balanced sex and personal development education.

Currently one-third of the state-funded schools in England and Wales are faith-based.

You can sign up to show support or get involved on the Accord website.

This all adds to my feelings that religion and faith should remain a private matter, and the discussion reminded me of something that came up at the conference I attended a week or so ago.   I had not before realised that hospital chaplains are funded by the NHS.  Given my recent experience, I can’t help thinking that that money would be better spent on more general counsellors who can cater to patients and relatives regardless of religion.  By all means allow religious officials to work in hospitals, but have them funded by the religious institutions themselves.

Advertisement