The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches has announced that it is joining the Accord Coalition on inclusive schooling.
The body is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian and Free Christian congregations in the United Kingdom.
The Accord Coalition, a broad campaign network, encompasses a wide range of different religious and non-religious groups and individuals concerned at the way that faith schools currently operate.
Launched in 2008, Accord already includes among its members the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, the Hindu Academy, Muslim group BMSD, and the British Humanist Association, among others.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of the Accord Coalition, welcomed the Unitarians' decision to join the organisation. He said: "The Unitarians' decision to join Accord and support our objectives not only broadens the wide range of our membership, but further demonstrates that concern about faith schools is not limited to secular groups, but also encompasses those with committed religious faith."
President of the Unitarians, Neville Kenyon, declared: "We believe that state schools should be open to children of every background, while jobs in schools should be open to all teachers who are qualified to do them."
He continued: "Schools should also teach pupils about the wide range of different religions and beliefs, helping to better prepare them for life in our increasingly diverse society. We are delighted to have become members of the Accord Coalition, which successfully addresses issues of religious liberty and is entirely in tune with the Unitarian ethos."
Unitarianism describes itself as "an open-minded and individualistic approach to faith that gives scope for a very wide range of beliefs and doubts. Religious freedom for each individual is at the heart of Unitarianism."
There are 170 congregations and fellowships within the denomination in the UK.
Comments
If faith groups wanted to start their own schools (and fund them themselves) then there should be nothing to stop them. To ban them from doing so would be illiberal, I agree. But that doesn't mean that it should be government policy to fund such schools that are exclusively for one faith.
We are not saying we want to abolish faith schools. We are saying if faith schools are state-funded they should not discriminate.
I don't think a comparison to special needs and single sex schools really makes sense. I pay tax that pays for hospitals. Those hospitals are used only by sick people. That happens not to be me (right now). But I don't begrudge that. What I would object to is for my local hospital to be only available to Christians.
Religious parents (and all parents) have the right for their children to be provided with local, good quality education. They don't have the right for the education to any kind of education of their own personal choosing. They don't have the right to insist their children are not taught beside children of other religions (notwithstanding Dawkins' point about children not having a religion).
If religious parents "deserve to have educational opportunities which meet their needs" that surely that needs to apply to ALL religious parents and all parents. If that is true then each local authority would need to provide as many schools as there are local religions. Every local authority WOULD HAVE TO provide an Anglican school, a Methodist schoool, a URC school, a Liberal Jewish school, a Reform Jewish School, a Conservative Jewish School, an Orthodox Jewish school, an atheist school, an agnostic school, a Quaker school, a Unitarian school, a Catholic school, a Mormon school, a Jehovah's Witness school, a Shi'a school, a Sunni school, etc etc etc. If it doesn't do this then some religions are being discriminated against.
Or you could just let people of any faith go to their local school, and not discrimate against them. That would also be fair.
If one believes in state funding for education then one will have to make a choice between a system with a "one size fits all" approach, or an educational system that caterers to the specific needs people have. Sometimes these needs can be catered for in an inclusive environment, other times they require specialist education that is more exclusive.
I don't think there is any reason to worry that every single religious group would want its own school,and that such schools would be closed or prioritised for pupils who do not share that faith. Liberal, Reform and Conservative Jews would not, neither would Quakers or agnostics, Unitarians or other liberal Christians and many other groups. This is primarily because their faiths do not require or create a need for specialist exclusive education. The majority of faith schools in any event, do allow children from other faiths to attend, this is most certainly the case in the Catholic school I attended and in all our local Anglican schools. It is a very tiny proportion that totally restrict their catchment to children of the same faith.In addition there are some faith-schools in which the majority of children come from a faith background other than that of the school.
The issue is so peripheral, considering the genuine unfairness that takes place in every town and city, were good secular schools are off limits to everybody who can't afford to live in expensive catchment areas, not to mention the many schools failing to provide even a basic education to their pupils, that I am suspicious of the motivations behind calls to remove faith-school funding or calls to force them to change their admissions criteria.
I just don't think an ideological attack on voluntary-aided schools is justified or proportionate with the genuine educational needs of our country.
And as I said before I would be loathed to begrudge any parent the ability to send their child to a school that they feel is necessary to them and their family. And I am much happier that such schools are in the state sector in as much as they can be better regulated.
To demand that some schools reform in the way you suggest, with the coercive threat of removing funding if they do not, would force the schools out of the state sector and into the private, this would lead to great hardships and I feel would damage the delicate balance of tolerance in our society and ultimately be unfair.
For those who are still left with a bad taste in the mouth about voluntary-aided schools, perhaps they may consider a system that uses education vouchers to opt out of the state sector.
Joseph, you say, "the majority of faith schools in any event, do allow children from other faiths to attend...In addition there are some faith-schools in which the majority of children come from a faith background." That is exactly the kind of school I attended, a state-funded Christian school where the majority of pupils were Muslim. The point is this good, hospitable practice should be true of all schools.
Please be very clear about what the Accord Coalition wants. We are NOT saying we want to abolish faith schools, we do NOT want to remove funding from faith schools. Accord has five very specific reforms that it is calling for, the first of which being an end to faith-based discrimination in admissions.
You say the hospitable standards of the faith-school you attended should be true of all schools. While I agree that in the majority of cases that is true (and it is in fact the reality in a very large segment of voluntary-aided schools anyhow) I don't think that it is true for all schools. And it is important for us not to imply that the faith groups behind those exclusive schools,the parents who send their children there or the students themselves, are lacking in hospitality or regard for the wider community. In my experience the opposite is true.
Demanding a change in the admissions of faith-schools, would without doubt bring an end to some of them existing in the state sector. (As well as being unfair) Thereby creating all the disadvantages to the parents and communities involved that I referred to previously. And it is clear to me that some of those involved with Accord are against religion having any significant role in society at all, and attack faith-schools not because they can be shown to be damaging but simply for ideological reasons and to further their own agenda.
Why so?
But Accord is clear in calling for reform of all faith schools.