Teachers call for faith schools ban to stop 'indoctrination' » Education » 24dash.com

Faith schools should be banned to stop religious groups indoctrinating children, teachers will say today.

Ministers should immediately halt the building of any new faith schools with the ultimate aim of wiping them off the face of the British education system, they argue.

Delegates at the annual conference of the NASUWT union in Belfast will discuss the issue in what is certain to be a highly charged debate.

Church schools have a reputation for producing excellent results and are highly popular with parents.

But critics have long argued that children should not be exposed to narrow religious teachings, warning that greater religious and social segregation will follow.

NASUWT's Brian Williams, who proposed the motion, said many parents underwent "miraculous conversions" simply to win places for their children at highly rated Anglican schools.

"Schools exist to broaden people's minds and religions tend to be the antithesis," he said.

"Religions are there to close people's minds. Schools exist to educate. Religions exist to indoctrinate. It's a con-trick."

Ministers want faith groups to be more involved in state education to provide a "distinctive ethos", through privately sponsoring city academies or backing the new breed of "trust schools".

But Mr Williams, from the union's Cardiff branch, said this would allow suspect groups to apply for state funding to open religious schools.

"The Government ifies Scientology as a religion so presumably it could apply for and get state funding; so the genie is out of the bottle," he said.

The motion sets out to reaffirm the union's opposition to the creation of more single-faith schools.

It says: "The Government's proposal to create more faith schools will encourage more social fragmentation than already exists.

"It is an inappropriate use of taxpayers' money to fund schools with exclusive and discriminatory philosophies."

The union's leadership must oppose "any further establishment of faith schools with the long-term aim of removing them altogether", the motion said.

The Government said it had no intention of stopping funding for such schools.

A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said: "We have no plans to cease to fund faith schools.

"The Government is committed to diversity in educational provision in the interests of raising standards and meeting parents' preferences for the type of school they want for their children.

"Faith schools already integrate fully into the state sector.

"They make an important contribution to community cohesion by promoting inclusion and developing partnerships with schools of other faiths, and with non-faith schools."

Copyright Press Association 2007.

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