Faith schools, by and large, work. They are popular with parents, achieve better grades and are perceived to be strong on discipline and pastoral care.
Conservative leader David Cameron gave a clear indication of his education policies this week with his pronouncement on faith schools.
He said:
“I think faith schools are an important part of our system, I support them and I would like if anything to see them grow.
“I think faith organisations bring often a sort of culture and ethos to a school that can help it improve and I’m a strong supporter personally [David Cameron’s daughter attends a Church of England primary school] and politically.”
His comments were interpreted by the Daily Mail as an intent to bring about “the biggest expansion of faith schools since the 19th century”.
In this, he falls broadly into line with the policies of the Labour government since 1997, whose successive Education Ministers have consistently supported faith schools.
In 1998, David Blunkett famously said that he would like to “bottle the ‘ethos’ of faith schools” and apply it to every school in the country.
Although he has been accused recently of “undermining” faith schools, as recently as 2007, Schools Secretary Ed Balls was saying, with specific reference to faith schools:
“One thing we’ve learnt as a government is that having a distinct ethos, strong leadership, a commitment to promoting opportunity for all, those are the kind of schools where parents want to send their children.”
There are many criticisms of faith schools put forward, some easily countered. To the commonly asked question: “do they push a religious agenda in the classroom?” – the answer is straightforward. All faith schools in England – Jewish, Catholic, Sikh, Muslim or CofE – are required to teach the National Curriculum, thus evolution, not creationism.
At the same time, there remain many legitimate debates: Should all taxpayers have to fund schools which are not open to all? Are admissions and employment policies fair? Is the selection process open to exploitation by “pushy parents” willing to feign religious devotion to get their child a place? Does a policy of schools for Muslims, schools for Sikhs, etc, have a socially divisive effect?
The really pertinent question is this, however: Why are successive politicians ready to overlook these concerns? And the simple answer is that faith schools, by and large, work. They are popular with parents, achieve better than average grades and are perceived to be strong on discipline and pastoral care.
Faith schools, accused of higher levels of ‘pupil sorting’ across schools, are now monitoring their own success at social cohesion. A recent report by Professor David Jesson of York University, funded by the Church of England, found that faith schools were better than non-faith schools at building community relations.
Based on ratings from Oftsed inspectors, Prof. Jesson found that of the 74 secondary faith schools surveyed, 24 (32 per cent) were rated “outstanding” at community relations. Of the 337 non-faith secondaries analysed, 55 (16 per cent) were given the same grade.
The atheist philosopher, Prof. Harry Brighouse, has argued that religious education benefits children from secular homes, promoting understanding and intellectual autonomy. Further arguments can be made that enabling Muslim schools, for example, legitimises that religion in society – in much the way that Catholics schools have.
What attracts even secular parents to faith school is the idea of education underpinned by an established set of beliefs, values and a strong narrative. It was, after all, originally the Church of England which established a system of mass education in this country in the 19th century with the aim to educate the poor.
In the 21st century, there will be a real diversity of different sorts of faith provision – the challenge for any government is to enable all children to have access to such an education, and not to allow the provision of faith schools to become another sop to the pushy middle classes.
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17 Responses to “Faith schools improve social cohesion. Discuss…”
Tom White
1) So apparently only a faith-based education can promote equality of opportunity, pastoral care, and social cohesion? What a statement of defeatism this is. Moreover, the article misses the point that much of the success of such schools comes about *because* they are exclusive – so if we want to go down this route, then why not set up a system of grammar schools? Good schools, academically demanding, and exclusive – and we remove the problem of religious faith…
2) How “understanding” of gay students are faith-based schools? Bishops in the House of Lords have recently shown, once again, that many Anglicans remain bigoted about employing gay people. Muslims – and there are honourable exceptions – are, by and large, worse. What message is that to promote “tolerance” and “understanding”?
Gabe Trodd
Hi. I, personally, think faith schools are a pretty bad legacy for Labour, within the context of a lot of great achievements.
Heavyweight research suggests that faith schools fail to improve standards, but rather create early apartheid and social fragmentation of children along lines of class, ability and religion.
In particular, research by academics at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education found no proof that providing parents with the choice of a religious secondary school either raised results or helped drive up standards in other local schools:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/18/faith-schools-standards-failing
Joe
Totally agree with both Gabe and Tom. I know it’s so very boring; but why not just have good, well funded local comprehensives?
I am missing something with faith schools? How can they possibly encourage cohesion when their existence suggests we should all be in separate institutions?
Antonine Wall
DC there with family friendly* Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien there…yes Catholic Schools have done a lot for Social Cohesion in these parts…. as anyone who’s ever been to an Old Firm game can tell you.
*if of course your family consists of solely of heterosexuals – who abstain from sex until such times they are married and then don’t use contraception
Colm
What absolute nonsense about promoting social cohesion. I went to a Catholic school, and could count the amount on non-Catholics I knew before I went to university on my fingers. We would regularly fight with the local C of E school (this is in Hertfordshire, not Belfast by the way). Before that I used to live in Kenton, and apparently the Catholic and Jewish kids fought constantly. Would this have happened if they had not been segregated? I doubt it.
Also, being bound by the national curriculum doesn’t stop the school throwing in a load of damaging nonsense on top. For example, from my school, sacking teachers who had children out of wedlock, and bringing in speakers to tell the girls that if they had an abortion they would hate themselves forever.