Faith school admissions: what is the new proposal and why is it controversial?
Changes to state school admissions regulations announced by the Government will remove the requirement for faith schools in England to provide up to half of their spaces to students who do not practise their religion.
In the UK, there are more than 4,500 Church of England schools, 1,955 Catholic schools and 139 other Christian denominations among England's 20,000 mainstream state schools. There are 50 Jewish, 12 Sikh and two Hindu faith schools, compared with 34 Islamic ones.
Fearing a fresh wave of faith-based schools being founded by churches and religious organisations, the government put a cap in 2010 on newly created schools under its free school plan.
But exactly is the new plan for faith schools and why could it be controversial?
What is the proposal for faith school admissions?
As of now, new faith-based schools are only permitted to use faith-based admissions criteria to fill 50 per cent of available spots. However, with the proposal announced by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, these schools will be able to turn away students before they reach the 50 per cent figure.
The government's survey, which began on Wednesday, would also permit religious organisations and churches to start faith-based schools for children with special needs. However, activists expressed concern that this may lead to moral dilemmas.
Why are some against the proposal?
Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, and novelists such as Philip Pullman and Ian McEwan are against proposals to remove the 50 per cent cap, which only applies when schools have more applicants than spaces.
They argue that the proposal would cause division and penalise underprivileged children by preventing them from attending nearby schools.
Andrew Copson, the chief executive of Humanists UK, said: “The proposal to allow 100% religious discrimination in new state faith schools will increase religious and racial segregation in our schools at a time when integration and cohesion has never been more important.
“It will further disadvantage poorer families, non-religious families and families of the ‘wrong’ religion.
“Rather than expanding religious selection, a government that cared about cohesion would be seeking to create a single admissions system where all state schools are open to children from any background or belief.”
