British Coalition Government Promises to Increase Number of Faith Schools - May 27, 2010

The new government in Britain has made public its coalition agreement, and there is good news for faith groups and their schools. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have made a pledge to work towards increasing the number of faith based schools across the UK.

The agreement states that the new government would “work with faith groups to enable more faith schools.”   It also stressed that it would “facilitate inclusive admissions policies in as many [faith] schools as possible”.

Christian groups are welcoming the move.  In recent years they have had to defend their schools against criticism by various vocal humanist groups, who say the schools are discriminatory and divisive.  There are some 4000 Church of England schools in the UK and many others run by other Christian groups.

Not surprisingly the head of British Humanist Association spoke against the government policy. Andrew Copson said “If the government is serious about ‘inclusiveness’ and a fair school system then it needs to rule out religious discrimination in admissions in all new schools and academies completely, and begin immediately to phase out discrimination in existing faith schools in the state sector.”

It appears that just the opposite is likely to happen under the coalition agreement.  As part of the deal, the Lib Dems are able to keep their promise to invest more money in pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, while the Tories’ promise to give more powers to parents and independent organisations to start up their own schools remains intact.

The agreement also gives schools greater control over curriculum, a Conservative promise during the election.

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