Faith in Schools - a dialogue

This began with my filling in some kind of comment or feedback form on the Department for Children, Schools and Families website expressing my dismay at the current Government's policy of encouraging the segregation of school children in accordance with their parents' religious beliefs.

I received the following reply:

Dear Dr Ward

Thank you for your email of 31 March about faith schools.
I acknowledge that some people may have concerns about the contribution of faith schools to community cohesion, but we know that the faith school providers are fully committed to a diverse school system and take the various requirements of maintained status very seriously.
I believe that all schools – whether they have a religious character or not – play a key role in fostering understanding, appreciation and shared values amongst their pupils. That is why section 38 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 places the governing bodies of all maintained schools under a duty to promote community cohesion, with this element of what they do to be inspected by Ofsted from September 2008.
A key component of schools' work on community cohesion should be to provide reasonable opportunities for children, young people, their friends and families to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relations. One way schools can provide these broader experiences to their pupils is through developing links with other schools in the UK. The DCSF is supporting schools to make these links by providing £2m to roll out the work of the Schools Linking Network into a national school linking programme with pilot projects in local authorities.
It is not right to draw comparisons with Northern Ireland, because the histories of our two countries have been shaped by very different circumstances. Ministers do not accept that the existence of faith schools inevitably leads to segregation by race or that faith schools are any less committed to inclusion and community cohesion than other schools.
Schools that are more than 75% of one race are generally no more likely to be faith schools than schools without a religious character.
Taxpayers’ money does not fund religious indoctrination. All maintained schools, including faith schools, must deliver a broad and balanced curriculum, including the National Curriculum, and are inspected by Ofsted accordingly.
All maintained schools must provide Religious Education for all their pupils, and some categories of faith school have additional freedoms around the teaching of RE, as RE does not form part of the National Curriculum.
RE encourages respect for those holding different beliefs and helps promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. In partnership with national faith organisations and the British Humanist Association, we have introduced a non-statutory framework for RE.
The Framework places inclusion, tolerance, diversity and interfaith dialogue at the heart of children's learning. These principles are shared both by the Department and faith communities.
In February 2006, the faith communities renewed their support for the framework in a joint statement making it clear that all children should be given the opportunity to receive inclusive religious education, and that they are committed to making sure the framework is used in the development of religious education in all their schools and colleges. This is an essential part of enabling young people to develop their own informed views on moral and ethical issues.
In maintained faith schools, as in any maintained school, parents have the right to withdraw their children from all or any part of RE. They do not have to give a reason for withdrawal and the schools is expected to comply with the request.

Yours sincerely
XXXX
Public Communications Unit

I replied:

Dear Ms XXXX

Thank you for your email.

To summarize: you argue that the negative effects of segregating children in accordance with their parents' religions are nowhere near as bad as people like me think; and you assure me that the government is putting all sorts of measures in place to mitigate these effects.

What is missing from your email, however, is any argument whatsoever in favour of the proposition that segregating children in accordance with their parents' religions is a good thing in itself. It does not really surprise me that such arguments are missing from your email, since you are clearly a reasonable person and it is impossible to imagine how any reasonable person could argue that it is a good thing to segregate children in accordance with their parents' religions.

By the way, I did not say that segregation along religious line leads to segregation along ethnic lines (though, pace your carefully chosen statistic, it very often does). I simply pointed out that the suggestion that segregation along religious lines leads to community cohesion is as coherent as the suggestion that segregation along ethnic lines leads to racial harmony. Or put it a different way: Why is religious segregation in education considered to be a good thing whereas racial segregation in education is considered to be a bad thing?

I find both types of segregation equally distasteful - as, according to the opinion polls I have seen, do most of the population of this country.

I hope that, sooner or later, reason will prevail in government and I look forward to a day when all schools (at least all state funded schools) will open their doors to all children, teach understanding of and tolerance towards all religious traditions, and leave the question of whether any particular set of supernatural beliefs is true to bodies outside the education system.

Yours sincerely

Dr M A Ward

the correspondence continued:

Dear Dr Ward,
Thank you for your email dated 17 April about faith schools.

I note your comments.

Further to my colleague's, Ms XXXXX, response I would add that faith schools are a long-established part of the school system with the involvement of the Church in education predating that of the state, and with a focus on the most disadvantaged. The dual system of voluntary schools supported by faith organisations and schools without a religious character is at the heart of the school system in England.

The Government will continue to develop a diverse system in which institutions work together, learn from each other and thereby drive up quality across the board. Faith schools make an important contribution to this diverse system and in Faith in the System, the Government and faith school providers have confirmed their commitment to continue to work together.

As explained previously, the Government recognise that people do have concerns about the contribution faith schools make to community cohesion and Ministers expect all maintained schools with and without a religious character to improve the life chances of children, to build bridges to greater mutual trust and understanding and to contribute to a just and cohesive society with all schools being inspected by Ofsted from September this year on the duty to promote community cohesion.

Yours sincerely,
YYYY
School Commissioning and Supply Division

and continued:

Dear Ms YYYYY

I realize that the segregation of children in accordance with their parents' religions is a long-established part of the school system. The same could be also said of bullying, sexual and physical abuse, racial discrimination, the illicit consumption of nicotine and any number of other practices. The fact that these practices are long established has never been considered a "knock-down argument" in favour of the notion that the government of the day should support and encourage such things. If fact, a series of governments has had considerable success is tackling or even eliminating the practices I have listed.

If the government wishes to justify its policy of promoting and increasing the segregation of children along religious lines, it really needs to come up with some convincing reasons why this policy, despite all the indications to the contrary, might be seen as a "good thing". I am afraid that the arguments you have presented thus far: "It's not as bad as you think" and "It's been going on for years" really do not do the trick.

And I am sorry, but I think you would struggle to get your proposition - that the segregation of children along religious lines can contribute to community cohesion - past the population of Salt Lake City let alone the population of the UK.

Yours sincerely

Dr M A Ward

and continued:

Dear Dr Ward,

Thank you for your email dated 01 May 2008 about maintained faith schools.

Ministers do not share your view that faith schools foster racial and cultural divisions and tensions in our society. Schools are well placed to become a focal point for the local community and to foster better relationships between diverse communities. Many Church of England schools have a high proportion of Muslim pupils and are very popular with Muslim parents.
The Commission on Integration and Cohesion’s report ‘Our Shared Future’ recognised that there are faith schools which have pupils from many different backgrounds and faiths, as well as largely single background schools which are not faith schools. Ministers believe that all schools – whether they have a religious character or not – play a key role in fostering understanding, appreciation and shared values amongst their pupils, thereby helping to promote community cohesion and equipping them to be active, responsible citizens in an increasingly diverse UK society. That is why, as mentioned in previous correspondence, section 38 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 places the governing bodies of all maintained schools- faith and non-faith schools alike- under a duty to promote community cohesion, with this element of what they do to be inspected by Ofsted from September 2008.

I acknowledge that some people may have concerns about the contribution of faith schools to community cohesion and about whether faith schools' admissions policies may sometimes contribute to selection or covert selection, but I must reiterate that the faith organisations are fully committed to the school system and take the various requirements of maintained status very seriously.

Yours sincerely,

YYYYY
School Commissioning and Supply Division

and continued:

Dear Ms YYYYYY

You wrote:

"Many Church of England schools have a high proportion of Muslim pupils and are very popular with Muslim parents."

You obviously think this is a good thing. So presumably you also think it would also be a good thing if many Christian parents sent their children to Muslim schools; and you think it would be even more of a good thing if more Christian and Muslim parents sent their children to the "wrong" schools.

Carry this argument to its logical conclusion, and you end up with desegregated schools.

So now in addition to the two arguments:

1) Religious segregation is schools is a good thing because, in England and Wales, its negative effects are unlikely to be as severe as we have seen in Northern Ireland and other divided communities around the world.

and

2) Religious segregation is schools is a good thing because, it has been going on a long time.

you have added a third:

3) Religious segregation is schools is a good thing because, it does not always result in complete segregation.

As for the "views of Ministers", I do not say that faith schools foster racial and cultural division; I say that faith schools are a racial and cultural division. Whether this will lead to greater tensions, is a matter not for anyone's views but for empirical research. All the evidence of history and from around the world points to what the results of such research are likely to to be. Why, given that you don't have a single coherent argument in favour of religious segregation, take the risk?

Dr M A Ward

and then finished:

Dear Dr Ward,

Thank you for your email and observations about faith schools.
I cannot add anything further but I note the points you have made.

Yours sincerely,

YYYYY
School Commissioning and Supply Division

I think I won all the arguments, but the Government carried on segregating kids anyway.