Church-run state schools have reached the end of their term [Guardian.co.uk]
- Published: 03 May 2011
The church has been involved in our schools for two centuries. For the sake of social justice, it is now time to close that chapter. The question: What choice for faith schools?
Most people don't want religious schools as part of our state-funded education system at all. When people are asked what groups they do not want to see running schools (such as private companies, charities, parent groups, religious groups), more people say religious groups than anything else. It's difficult to say for certain why, but certainly most people say they think religiously selective schools damage social cohesion and the socially selective nature of church schools in particular is a long-standing cause of complaint.
Repeated studies have shown that where there is religious selection in church-run state schools there is also social selection. A report by academics at the LSE in 2009 reaffirmed that the range of admissions criteria allowed scope for school "discretion", but social selection need not even be deliberate on the part of church-run state schools. Even the most socially progressive school will find, if its admissions criteria allow for religious selection, that it is middle-class parents with the time and the means to play the system whose children will end up attending the school. The pupils admitted to religiously selective schools are more academically able and less likely to be on free school meals than others in the area. They show all the attributes of socially selected children.
Full Story: www.guardian.co.uk
