Faith School Menace?

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Education has become

one of the most fiercely debated

political battlegrounds.

Billions of pounds of our money

are poured into schools every year.

But there's an aspect of education

that is rarely questioned,

a slow, creeping change

in the make-up of our schools -

one third are now faith schools.

I did, I converted to Catholicism.

For the sake of your child.

For the sake of my child.

If you come to our school,

we're very much open minds.

What we are trying to indoctrinate

is a view that faith matters.

Some say parents must be able to

educate their child in their faith.

Do you believe that parents

have the human right

to choose the education

for their children or not?

Others fear this is limiting

and divisive.

To separate yourself off

from the rest of humanity,

is deeply, deeply tragic.

Isn't it time for our society to

re-think what is best for children?

I want to explore the balance of

rights between a parent's right

to educate a child

in their own faith

and the children's rights

to determine their own beliefs

and approach the world

with an genuinely open mind.

FAITH SCHOOL MENACE?

One in three state schools in

our country is now a faith school,

a school with formal links

to a religion.

These schools have

extraordinary privileges.

Because, 60 years ago,

churches provided half the money

for their schools,

many were allowed to discriminate

on religious grounds

in selecting pupils

based on parents' faith

and in recruiting staff.

They could also have the freedom

to teach their own syllabus

of religious education, RE.

Today, we taxpayers fund the running

of these schools and also pay

up to 90% of the cost

of building them.

But the problem is

the churches held on

to their special powers

in their schools.

And then the Government

under Tony Blair

made a decision

that changed Britain forever.

It oversaw the foundation of over

100 new faith schools,

including Muslim, Hindu

and Sikh schools,

along with 42 academies sponsored

by Christian organisations.

A big man for a big job - Charles

Clarke's waited a long time for this.

This man was Education Secretary

under Blair.

Why did he open the floodgates?

You can say, we're only going

to keep it that you have Christian

and a tiny proportion

of other faith schools.

I think that leads you into

serious risk of discrimination,

saying it's OK to have

a Christian faith school

but, for the sake of argument,

not a Muslim faith school,

which is not acceptable, and you've

got to have the same rule for all.

I understand Charles Clarke's desire

not to discriminate

against minority religions.

I agree we need one rule for all.

But I think the Government

turned the wrong way.

It should have abolished

the faith component altogether,

not rolled out more faith schools.

You can make a logical argument

- I completely understand it,

in fact, I first was a co-author of

a pamphlet about this in 1978-

which says abolish all faith schools,

but I think you've then got to look

at how that relates

to what the population as a whole

feel about faith schools.

You wouldn't have to abolish them,

just stop supporting them

with Government money.

Well, that's the same

as abolishing them.

I mean the net effect of this

would be to close

thousands of schools.

Let the schools remain

but abolish the separation

between Catholic, Protestant...

You're saying take the money away

from the school which has that...

Yes. But the school could stay. It's

got the same buildings, teachers...

But you're taking away

90% of their revenue funding.

Closing these schools, which is I

think the effect of what you say,

is something

that wouldn't be accepted.

But it's their decision to close it.

They have the option.

I'm Secretary of State for Education,

and 4,000 schools are closed -

by their decision, not my decision -

but as a result of what I have said

hypothetically,

waving your big stick

which you've offered me.

I don't think that society

would accept that.

Having been a key player

in this huge gamble

with our country's education system,

you'd hope there'd be more

enthusiasm and conviction

in Charles Clarke's

backing for faith schools.

In fact, we find he used to be

against faith schools

and his main defence of them now

seems to be that voters

wouldn't agree to abolishing them.

And I'm not at all convinced

Charles Clarke is right

about public feeling.

In fact, we commissioned an

ICM opinion poll that showed

a clear majority, 59%,

still believed

that schools should be for everyone,

regardless of religion

and the Government should not be

funding faith schools of any kind.

I believe the Government must act

and take the faith

out of faith schools.

The first and most outwardly

dramatic change being brought about

by these schools has been a bizarre

distortion of parents' behaviour,

particularly in the push

for primary school places.

About 7% of the British

population worship in church.

But around 36% of primary schools

are run by the churches,

and they can select pupils on

the basis of parents' faith.

Parental choice?

OK, let's talk

about parental choice.

Suppose I'm a parent living with

my children exactly here in Oxford,

where we are standing now.

If we want a faith-based

primary school,

we've got all these red dots

to choose from

within easy walking distance.

St Phillip and St James,

there's St Aloysius,

a Catholic school, and there's St

Barnabas, another Anglican school.

But if we want a non-faith-based

school, we've got to go miles here,

here or here, or here.

Parents who wish to exercise

their choice

of a non-faith-based education

for their children

are, effectively,

discriminated against.

They're excluded

from one third of British

state-funded primary schools.

How do parents feel about this?

I've come to Mumsnet.

Justine?

Richard! How nice to meet you.

Hello, Justine,

thank you very much for having me.

Welcome to Mumsnet Towers.

Mumsnet is a web forum where parents

get together online using pseudonyms

to chat freely about issues

involving their children.

I'm here to ask about their

experience of faith schools.

Slug is saying it's not that

we were forced into a choice,

it's that we were excluded

from state-funded schools

because of our lack of faith.

It would be unacceptable, of course,

to exclude people on the basis

of their race, but somehow it's OK

if it's their parents' religion.

Joe Bauwens's son is excluded

from all three of the local

primary schools,

two Anglican and one Catholic,

on the grounds that his parents

are not churchgoers.

Oh, God, there's so much going

on, I can't keep up. Hang on.

If parents don't want their children

to be excluded, the other option,

of course, is to fake a faith.

"Our neighbours trot along to church

every Sunday,

"rolling their eyes as they go,

"all so their children

can go to the local school. "

We seem to be hearing that

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