The Accord Coalition has welcomed comments from Pope Francis warning of the risk of education serving to distance groups of people from each other, and urging Catholic educators to avoid social selection.
Speaking at an international Catholic education conference in response to a question asking how educators can foster a culture of encounter and restore broken bonds among schools, families and society, Pope Francis said Catholic educators should overcome a tendency of schools to be selective, and work to restore links broken in society by the placing of profit over people. He said ‘This is a shameful global reality. It is a reality that leads us toward a human selectivity that, instead of bringing people together, it distances them; it distances the rich from the poor; it distances one culture from another.’
Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘It is astonishing, but also remarkably refreshing that the Pope has recognised negative social consequences of dividing children into different faith schools. Religious education should not come at the price of social segregation. The way forward is already being pioneered in Northern Ireland by the Integrated Schools, which respect different traditions but educate all children together.’
Religiously selective schools in England have been found to be socio-economically selective, whether looking at a national, borough wide or neighbourhood level. Research released in December 2013 by the Fair Admissions Campaign found that Roman Catholic secondary schools in England admitted 28% fewer pupils entitled to free schools meals (a government indicator of deprivation) than if they admitted local children.
The 2001 Home Office sponsored ‘Cantle Report‘ investigated causes of race riots in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham that year. If found faith schools appeared to be ‘operating discriminatory policies where religious affiliations protect cultural and ethnic divisions.’
Notes
Pope Francis’s comments have been reported by the Catholic News Service at http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2015/education-is-too-selective-elitist-pope-says.cfm.
When are Catholic schools going to stop selecting children by religion?