The youth wing of the Green Party of England and Wales, the Young Greens, has announced today that it is joining the Accord Coalition. Male Co-Chair of the Young Greens, Sam Coates, said ‘Schools should be the bedrock of local communities, not a source of religious discrimination, segregation or division. We are pleased to be joining Accord, to help ensure that all state schools are made open to all and better prepare young people for life in a mixed belief society’.
Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘I am pleased to welcome the Young Greens to Accord’s growing rank of member organisations, and it is particularly welcoming to admit a group that seeks to represent, and has among its own membership, young people of school age, whose views are so often ignored when society debates education policy’.
The Young Greens are the official youth wing of the Green Party, representing Party members under the age of 30. Accord is backed by members from all the main political Parties, and the Young Greens join Accord’s diverse range of existing supporters, who include:
• Association of Teachers and Lecturers
• British Humanist Association
• British Muslims for Secular Democracy
• Christian think tank Ekklesia
• Gay and Lesbian Christian Movement
• General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
• Liberal Youth, the young wing of the Liberal Democrats
• Socialist Education Association, which is affiliated to the Labour Party
• Baroness Blackstone, Labour Peeress and Minister for Education (1997-2001)
• Lord Glentoran, Conservative Peer and Olympic gold medallist
• Naomi Long MP of the Alliance Party, Northern Ireland’s largest non-sectarian Party
• Philip Pullman, author
• Polly Toynbee, journalist
Notes
A survey in the autumn of 2010 of a “representative sample” of 1957 children and young people aged between 9 and 16 years old, by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England, found:
“However, only one in five (20%) children and young people felt that religion (a proxy for faith schools) should be used in admissions criteria and nearly two-thirds (64%) felt religion should not be part of school’s selection criteria (and 16% were unsure). The focus group participants also tended to hold strong views against selection on religious grounds” P27.
