A letter from members of nine religious traditions calling for an end to religious discrimination in schools has been published in the Times. The plea coincides with the first day of the Equality Bill’s committee stage, which campaigners believe could prove crucial in the struggle to make schools more inclusive.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, who is a signatory to the letter and the Chair of Accord said:
“One of the main aims of the Bill is to promote equality between people of different religions and beliefs, but unless it challenges the opt-outs given to faith schools it will fail in its task. We decided to write this letter from the religious conviction that segregating children by their parents’ beliefs cannot be the right way for state schools to operate.”
Unless the Bill is amended it will leave untouched the wide exemptions given to faith schools from equalities law on admissions and employment. This means that oversubscribed faith schools will still be able to reserve all of their places for those of the same religion and schools will continue to appoint, promote and dismiss teachers and other staff according to their beliefs.
FULL TEXT OF LETTER WITH SIGNATORIES
Sir, As members of a nine religious traditions, we call on MPs to eradicate two forms of discrimination that breach human rights and are religiously offensive, yet are currently enshrined in the Equality Bill.
The first is the ability of state- funded faith schools to reject those deemed to belong to the “wrong religion”, even if they live right next to it, wish to attend and accept its character. We believe such schools should serve not only themselves but also the local community.
The second is the law that allows those same schools to reject teachers who are fully qualified for a post, but who are not of the school’s denomination. At present, voluntary aided faith schools are free to insist that even the geography teacher practices the religion of the school. This creates a highly insular outlook.
Many faith schools maintain a religious ethos without this discrimination, particularly voluntary controlled schools and academies. We question what sort of faith requires other schools to discriminate against children and teachers. Our motivation is religious: we take seriously the command to love our neighbour as ourselves and believe that means we must not segregate our children from each other. Creating educational ghettos smacks of weak faith and is a poor recipe for social harmony.
We urge MPs of all parties and beliefs to make sure that the Bill does not permit state-sanctioned discrimination to continue.
The Rev Jeremy Chadd (C of E)
The Rev Steve Dick (Unitarian)
The Rev Marie Dove (Methodist)
Symon Hill (Quaker)
Jay Lakhani (Hindu)
The Rev Iain Mcdonald (URC)
Manzoor Moghal (Muslim)
Brian Pearce (Buddhist)
Rabbi Jonathan Romain (Jewish)
Alex Kennedy is the Coalition Coordinator
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