Education Bill creates new power to increase religious discrimination in schools

8 February 2011

The government's new Education Bill which MPs begin to debate today (08/02/11) has been criticised by the British Humanist Association (BHA) as a vehicle for the proliferation of religious discrimination in the state-maintained schools system, including through its creation of a new power for the Secretary of State to permit wide religious discrimination against teachers.

New power to permit religious discrimination against teachers

The Education Bill gives the Secretary of State a new power to permit widespread discrimination in employment in state-maintained religious Academy schools which have 'converted' from voluntary controlled status. Voluntary controlled schools with a religious character are permitted to 'reserve' up to a fifth of teaching posts for teachers of the 'right' religion. While this rule applies to such schools which take on Academy status, the Bill allows the Secretary of State to disallow this and permit discrimination against any teacher in the new Academy school, representing new and potentially wide discrimination against teachers.

BHA chief executive Andrew Copson said, 'The Bill creates a new centralising power, giving the Secretary of State carte blanche to decide the employment rights of teachers in new local schools. Having up to a fifth of teaching posts reserved only for people who are of the 'right' religion is, in any case, deeply unsatisfactory. Extending the power for newly created state-maintained schools to discriminate against all teachers if they request it is deeply regressive and puts at real risk the employment opportunities for potentially thousands of qualified teachers throughout the country.'

Less scrutiny of 'faith' schools' admissions

The Education Bill reduces the control and scrutiny over school admissions, through removing the duty of local authorities to report on the admissions criteria of schools in an area and to establish an admissions forum. It also curtails the powers of the schools adjudicator which can no longer make a modification to a school's admissions arrangements, even in response to a complaint. In November 2010, the schools adjudicator warned that faith schools' admissions rules are discriminating against poor and immigrant children to favour those from the middle classes.

Mr Copson continued, 'It is unbelievable that, at the same time as the government is encouraging a proliferation of 'faith' schools, including religious Academies and free schools, it is proposing to reduce local control over, and proper scrutiny of, admissions criteria and practices. Without tightening up the rules rather than relaxing them, we are setting ourselves up for even more discrimination in admissions and more division of children and communities along religious, socio-economic and even ethnic lines.'

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