September 19, 2007
Labour Humanists today maintained their firm opposition to ‘faith’ schools with a clear condemnation of the Government’s recent statement lauding the contribution such schools supposedly make to ‘community cohesion and integration’.
Chair Anthony Burn denounced the document as: “a clear example of the Government’s continuing folly in this area."
“The Government claims such schools will promote community cohesion - yet it stills fails to point to ways in which this will genuinely occur. Requiring ‘faith’ school pupils to have occasional contact with pupils from other schools will hardly equip our children with the skills to get on with those holding different beliefs - or indeed no religious beliefs.
“This is without again highlighting the squeeze on the rights of non-religious parents, caught in a system that assumes all Britons must belong to one religion or another.”
Labour Humanists also highlighted research released this week from the LSE showing ‘faith’ schools take in a far smaller proportion of children from low-income families than do their community school counterparts.
“Snaffling in the most teachable pupils under the guise of religion is wrong in any circumstance. But this creates only a redoubled division within communities – by both alleged religion and by income.
“As Labour people and humanists we can only fear for the shape of our communities in the future. How will out children truly learn to live together unless they first study, grow and become adults together?”
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