Falkirk Council has announced proposals to allow its one secondary and eight primary Catholic schools to give priority to children who are baptised Catholics from August 2015. The move has drawn sharp criticism from the Accord Coalition.
Accord’s Chair, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘There is growing realisation that dividing children at the school gates by faith is a form of discrimination that is at odds with religious beliefs, educational values and the social good. It therefore seems madness to start implementing discriminatory policies where none existed previously and which will have the effect of making locals school – denominational and non-denominational – more segregated.
‘Schools are the very institutions that should be equipping pupils for engagement with living in a mixed-belief society, and if they are not inclusive then our society will not be. Falkirk Council should examine the underlying principles and consequences of what it is proposing and reconsider its intended policy.’
There are 370 state funded denominational schools in Scotland (out of 2,569 in total), of which 366 are Catholic, one is Jewish and three are Episcopalian. Unlike in England and Wales, where some faith schools set their own admissions policies, no Scottish school is responsible for its admission arrangements, with policies being set by the 32 local councils. Most currently do not permit their faith schools to religiously select pupils. Falkirk’s proposals run counter to wider moves in the UK to move away from faith based selection.
