Guardian UK: Faith schools may be Blair's most damaging legacy

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Faith schools may be Blair's most damaging legacy
Labour's new rules mean that anyone who works in these institutions may have to get down on their knees to keep their jobs

Polly Toynbee
The Guardian, Tuesday September 2 2008



Children start their new schools this week for the 12th year under Labour. Who could have predicted that more pupils than ever will be going to religious schools this term, as the churches boasted gleefully? Pews empty but faith schools multiply.

There are about 14,000 non-religious schools, and nearly 7,000 faith schools. This year the figure has risen again as new academies open: a third are faith-run - and religions have taken over some community schools. Next year 13 more new faith schools open, mostly Christian with three Muslim. This risks being among the most indelibly damaging of Tony Blair's social legacies, his permanent bequest to his own beliefs.

Yesterday a new campaign was launched to oppose segregating children by faith. The Accord coalition brings together surprisingly disparate interests, with some teaching unions, the British Humanist Association (of which I am president) and Ekklesia, the Christian theological thinktank. No sooner was the new group made public than its chair, Rabbi Jonathan Romain, minister of Maidenhead synagogue, paid for his outspoken bravery with a savage personal assault from the Jewish Chronicle. Ekklesia can expect similar fury from Christian denominations. Meanwhile secularists are suffering a backlash from the faiths, as if books by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and AC Grayling were any match for the mysterious bully power that religions hold over government.

Accord wants faith schools to abide by the same admissions criteria as other state schools, with no selection by belief. Teachers should be employed for their skills, not for their faith. It opposes Labour's new rules for faith schools, which came into law yesterday, allowing them to keep all jobs for the faithful. Teaching assistants, dinner ladies and caretakers may need to get on their knees to keep their jobs from now on.

Official policy says it's up to local communities to decide the kind of schools they want. In practice, the academy programme encourages widespread faith takeovers, though in future they must offer half their places to outsiders. Years of Labour handwringing over community cohesion hardly squares with dividing children by religion. Ask why and here's the doublethink answer: religious academies now have a "duty to promote community cohesion". ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/02/education.labour